Those of you that talk to me outside of NC probably know that gardening is one of my favorite hobbies. I love flowers! I've worked at my aunt's greenhouse since I was 10 years old and she'd pay me to move plants from one greenhouse to the other. Of course, over time I learned a -ton- about flowers, and really developed a love for growing things :D
At my mom's house, I had a little garden that was 'mine', but really it was sort of a project between my mom and I - we picked out the plants together and planted it together, and I was very proud of it! But it was in a part of our yard that didn't get a really good amount of sun, and really needed better dirt. The garden didn't last very long ;_;
Since I moved out, I spent two years in dorm rooms, then two apartments that had no room for plants what-so-ever. Depressing! Finally, when I moved to Ohio, I had a nice apartment with a huge patio for tons of plants - and tons of plants I had. Unfortunately, that first summer I used really crappy potting soil so my plants didn't do so well. The next year I learned from my mistake and had a lovely little potted garden on my patio!
After that, it was back to an apartment with a balcony, but we still had tons of potted plants on it - tons! And then we moved into our townhouse, and again, my patio was full of lovely plants - even veggies and herbs!
Well, whoever lived in our townhouse before us planted a bunch of day-lilies around the front of the house. Two problems with this: One, I hate day lilies. A LOT. And two, we get about 3 hours of sunlight - so the stupid things didn't bloom anyway! I finally asked the ladies that run my complex if I could dig them up and plant my own garden - and they said yes :D
So on our trip to Chicago, I picked out some plants I wanted, and today Lindsey and I sat outside in the heat and sun, digging up the crappy clay-ridden dirt, putting down fresh top soil, and planting my lovely plants! And now I have my first little garden, all my own :D
Wow, that was far too long of an introduction to my garden xD Either way, here are pictures of my GARDEN!
The left side of my garden, which was the hard part -that's where the lilies were. Also, they used ROCKS as the ground cover, so we had to dig through piles and piles of little landscaping rocks and throw them away - it was awful. Some of the blocks of clay in the soil were -huge-. Like, the width of a dinner plate and at least as thick as a brick. It was awful, but it came out nice!
The plants, from left to right, are: All That Jazz Coneflower (it'll get huge, purple flowers), Patriot Hosta, Tiki Torch Coneflower (which'll get huge, orange flowers! It's the big plant in the back), and Key Lime Heuchera (aka Coral Bells), which is quite possibly my favorite perennial ever :3
The right side of the garden, which was a bit easier, since it was all grass I dug up myself - though as you can see, we don't have a lot of grass so it wasn't that much to dig up xD
A better view! From left to right here, there's a Miracle Heuchera, a Ligularia (with the huge leaves! - this one will get bunches of yellow flowers) and another Patriot Hosta to round things off :3 Both sides have little bits of Impatiens thrown in for extra color!
Crappy picture of the whole thing, which includes my Impatiens hanging basket, my planter, and our pile of dirty shoes xD;
Last but not least, my planter - the pot is real terra cotta and was a gift from my mom! The flower in the back with the pink cluster of flowers is a Pentas - my absolute favorite flower of all time :D Some of you may recognize a certain Subeta pet of mine with the same name ;)
Anyway! Long post is long, but there you have it - my little garden! I'm so happy with how it came out!
My grandpa is huge into flowers and birdhouses, I should show you pictures of their backyard sometime! You can identify the flowers, and Lindsey can the birds!!