Before and After - It Ain't Much... But It's A Start!

I have a new passion.  Gardening.  I love it.  Maybe more than triathlon right now, but I am definitely more excited about waking up and checking on my little babies growing in the yard.

We had a pretty small budget for beautifying our property, but the yards had never been touched in the 30 years our house has been standing, but I was determined to plant something!  This is our first house, I've never had a yard, but I always knew I would get into gardening someday....

So I started in early March, bought everything I needed to grow seedlings, which seemed to be the cheapest way to start a garden.  In our front (east facing) window, I had some annuals and also decided on some perrenials as well as some herbs growing, and I tended them with such care, every morning Reed and I would check them out to see what was growing, I love it!  Let me preface all this by saying - I have no idea what I'm doing.  I read a couple books, and have been following a couple good local gardening blogs, but really I have no clue!

For annuals, I got fast-growing flowering beauties: cosmos and morning glories (my mom later gave me a bunch of left over nasturtiums), then a whack of perrenial flowers (or so it says on the package....): columbine, lupins, shasta daisy and bee balm (which is proving to be a little slow-growing, must be doing something wrong).  I didn't plant all the seeds I had bought, thinking that I would staright sow the ones that said they grew easily from seed, like black-eyed Susan, and Everlasting Pea. 

Now, I had also planned on buying store annuals, for the planters out back and front.  Because, I am fully aware that I may never see a flower on any of these little tender seedlings!  I planted those too early (May long weekend), and spend the next week or so pulling the pots inside and covering the barrels with sheets overnight!  Lessons learnt, don't plant until June around here.

Here are the BEFORE pics.  We have been having pretty crap weather, cold and rainy.  Yesterday, I decided to put some of my little babies into the front bed and then severe thunderstorms hit us.  Even a tornado not  too far away!  Crazy weather here in the foothills. 

You can play Where's Waldo - Where's Pearl...?

 The front of our house.  I planted (a friend bought me some) hostas, and some other unknown perennials she divided from her garden.  I will be adding my wee little seedlings around, hoping for some flowers...  PS most of our budget went towards the soil needed to build / give nutrients to this dirt!

 A closer look

 Planted a couple of pots.  Left one, geraniums, pansies and nicotania.  Right one petunias (which have been cut back in hopes of fuller growth).

 You can't even see the seedlings - herb garden: chives, basil, and thyme.

 We have had one hummingbird so far.  The feeder has been out for 3 weeks now, I think this bird has flown!

 Our side stoop, off the kitchen, going to the backyard.  Two pots of geraniums on left, and seedlings getting hardened off on right.

 This bed on the right, will require lots more soil, so I may have to plants these (the divided perennials) into pots until next year.

 There are three barrels.  This one I tried to use to cover Pearl's fave pee-patch.  Here she is telling me "It ain't gonna work!".  It's a barrel full of (cut-back) petunias, beside a little pot of impatiens.

 This barrel of impatiens is sick.  Yellow leaves with whitish spots...

 Mixed barrel = pansies (my new fave), marigolds, nicotania, ivy geranium, and the little white flower, I forget the name, reminiscent of baby's breath....

 A little hokey idea I saw on a blog, hang old mason jars along ugly fence, or here old ugly garage trellis.  They have nasturtiums growing.

 And finally after 3 weeks, the bare patch of dirt, where the shed used to sit, is showing signs of the grass I planted.

And there is my garden in early June!  Can't wait to see what will thrive and how it will look in a month!