Planting

This morning I went to my local nursery and took Mr. Jim's advice and bought Loropetalum and Abelia and Camellia. (Seven plants total.)

This afternoon, I planted:
2 Loropetalum
4 Abelia
1 Camellia
And transplanted to pots (for now):
2 Echinops Ritro
1 Echinacea
1 Hydrangea

And tonight I am sore and tired! Nothing like digging in clay!!!

I still have to plant:
3 Nandina
4 potted plants from above
4 other hydrangea
3 blueberry bareroot bushes (I'm nervous about the bareroot part!)
2 raspberry bareroot bushes
1 butterfly bush
3 rudbekia
1 monarda
and a ton of seeds, which I'm not at all worried about.

Also need to MAKE a bed for many of the above, weed out another bed and finish building it, and dig out an old gravel drive where I'll plant the berry bushes. In other words, more aches and pains! But, oh, you'll not hear me complaining come summertime, when I'll be rewarded with all kinds of beauty. :)

Empanadas and Tomato Cilantro Salad

I do not like to cook. Period. But a couple days ago I stumbled upon a recipe I'd torn out of a magazine ages ago. It was for Empanadas. A salad was pictured with the empanadas, but I didn't have the recipe for that. So I did what I thought would taste good, and wow! -- Lunch was a hit!

Here is how to make the empanadas:

1 pound refrigerator pizza dough (Next time I'll make my own)
1 can refried beans
1 package cheddar cheese
Salsa sauce

Cut pizza dough into six equal portions. With rolling pin, roll out each portion. Spoon refried beans onto one half-side of dough. Spread on 1 1/2 tablespoon salsa. Sprinkle on 2 tablespoons cheddar cheese. Fold empty side over filled side; pinch edges of dough closed. Lay on baking stone. Rub oil over empanada. Bake @ 350 for 12-15 minutes, or till slightly browned. Serve with more salsa or sour cream.

For the salad, I cut up 4 tomatoes (from on the vine), snipped a good bit of cilantro into it, added some thin slices of red onion, and drizzled the salad with fresh lime juice and olive oil. Talk about sinking your senses into summer! -- This was it!

I think we'll have empanadas and Tomato Cilantro salad every week from here on out. :)

Signs of Life

We are having the wettest spring! As opposed to last summer when there were huge fissures around our yard from the severe drought, we are now getting rain, rain, and more rain. When I walk in the lawn, squishy sounds greet my ears, and water pours into the holes of my crocs as my feet sink into the swampy turf. (If you could call our lawn 'turf'. -- It's more like 'healthy weeds' than anything!)

Today was no exception with the rain. And thunder and lightening kept the kids close to our sides much of the day. The gutters overflowed into my flowerbeds, drowning the poor plants that managed to survive last year's drought.

But after the rain ended, the sun burst out from behind a cloud and rewarded us with all the signs of spring.

Hollyhocks in my garden are taking off! Can't wait to see their blooms!

Vinca is already showing pretty blooms. And that was one of the things I was thinking of pulling out. Oh, dear! I'm very tender-hearted toward a plant that will do well with me. So, maybe she'll stay.

My Confederate Jasmine is also thriving, although reddish in color. ??? I saw its brothers and sisters at the nursery I bought it from, and some were green; some were red. Mr. Jim told me that it did seem odd, but it still was healthy. Maybe a different variety???

Forsythia just glows under the evening sun. Yesterday I noticed tiny hints of yellow; today it is open.


The greenest thing in the woods is still the moss. If I could turn my yard into a blanket of moss, I would do it in a heartbeat. I love it! Now, though, I am enjoying it in the woods (not from the edge of my yard). -- Our dear neighbors (I really mean 'dear'!) are blazing a trail through the woods from their house to the top of the hill, with another trailhead entrance at the edge of our lawn. It has since made me feel like a participant in our woods instead of a by-stander. -- I can enter the woods without tripping over vines and being torn to shreds by briars. It is lovely!

Of course Dear Children felt the need to be a part of Spring by playing in the mud puddles!

Nursery and Mail-Order Plants

I recently put in an order through Spring Hill Nursery for some more plants. (I ordered from them last year, and was pleased with the results, so decided to try it again.) Soon after ordering, three hydrangeas (one red and two purple), a butterfly bush, 3 rudbekia, and 1 monarda arrived in the mail looking small but healthy. Now, about a week later, they have leafed out an incredible amount, and are literally lunging in growth by the day! I am so pleased!

Hands down, hydrangeas are my 'most favoritest' flower! I hope to own one of each (of which I'm learning there are hundreds, at least) someday. :) I just love their colors: not shockingly vivid, although some are close to that, but . . . I don't know, just softly pleasant to view. . . . Love 'em!

I also saw Jim at my local nursery. What a help he was!!! I spent at least an hour with him, discussing the pros and cons of plants appropriate for my problem-spot garden, and soaking up all the garden knowledge I could. I came home with a few plants, plus wrote down all the ones he recommended. I'll be sitting down with my graph paper and figuring out where I'll fit all these beauties in. Can't wait to have something good to show you!

But first, I've gotta start hacking at my clay. Groan!! I need to move not only my hydrangea from the front around to the back of my house, but also the lilac that is now quite big. Oh, my achin' back, here we come!

Spring is Coming!

I don't think much could thrill my soul more than the little bits of green that I see poking out of tree and shrub, and pushing aside the dark earth. Equally exciting is the weather being warm enough to enjoy a close-up look, and tearing out the weeds that have filled in a lot of that dark earth.

I spent the morning at a local nursery getting some much-needed help. I am too embarrassed to show you how bad my flowerbed currently looks. Maybe I'll get brave and show the "before" pictures once I have an "after" picture to go along with it, so you know how much it improved.

Too late I realized that I shouldn't try to make my foundation bed a perennial garden. Currently I have overgrown lavender and rosemary in it, as well as a hydrangea that gets cooked in summer's heat; echinacea, clematis, and hollyhocks that look good but are poorly placed; and struggling echinops ritro.

So, it is time to move some stuff, and then cover up that ugly cinderblock foundation with some shrubs. The nursery man told me to draw out my bed's dimensions, adding in what's currently there, and take some pictures. He'll help me from there. -- Thanks!!! -- I need all the help I can get!

So, till there's something good to show you, think of me pulling weeds, killing ant mounds, and moving plants around in preparation for planting shrubs. Can't wait to see the improvement. -- Anything has to be better than how it currently is!

Curtains

Today I made curtains for Daughter's room. I am so pleased with the results! Every time I go in her room, I feel completely restful and calm, yet energized. -- I absolutely love green and white together! Maybe because green is a sign of life, which I am so ready to receive in the form of Springtime. Anyway, here they are:


Not sure if I'm going to leave the tie-backs just like this, or if I'll come up with something else. For now, I still like it.

(Have I ever mentioned how I HATE, HATE, HATE hanging curtain rods? Seventeen EXTRA holes later, and the rods are up. Strange, I always thought the framing studs ran vertically; the ONLY stud I found ran horizontally about 4 1/2 inches above my window frame, thus determining the curtain's length. Good thing I was satisfied with this height!)

Inspiration

Daughter's bedroom has bothered me for awhile, namely the unpainted trim. Inspiration struck, and I am now in the middle of completing a slew of details (finally painting the trim and doors, making a headboard, sewing curtains, making shelves above the windows, to name a few). Here are some treasures I've collected/made/received over the years that have inspired me in the evolution of Daughter's room:

An Auntie gave me the doll she played with as a child:

The dishes I played "tea" with as a child (with crackers, cheese, and raisins):

The dress Daughter wore home from the hospital, and for her dedication ceremony:


A local flea market find that I love, love, love:


A pomander I made from flowers grown in my garden last summer:

A baby quilt handmade by an Auntie for Daughter's birth:

A gift of nesting dolls for Daughter, brought home from Germany by Husband:

A tin teaset for Daughter's Christmas gift:

Another Christmas gift, a kitchen outfit, complete with "messy" dishes in the sink: