Our Flower Garden : Photo Essay

We have an area off to the side of our house that apparently was intended to be a flower garden by the people we bought the house from.  I've never been the green thumb type so it's pretty much just sat there the entire time we've lived here.  I've planted a few things in it every now and then but haven't done any serious work on it.  The past year I've really gotten into improving our property and doing outdoorsy work, so I decided on getting that flower garden in shape.  The kids and I went to town today and picked up some plants, some gardening tools, and some garden gloves and set to work.

Here's what the flower garden looks like.

Here are the plants we picked out.  Haley and Parker picked some out too.  I thought they would get excited about picking out their own plants and then getting to plant them.

After getting everything out and in place we got to work digging our first hole.

It took quite a while.  I ended up digging it after they concluded it was "taking forever".  (See the look of annoyance and frustration on Parker's face.  LOL)

Here's Haley covering the roots of her first plant up.

Her little garden gloves were Scooby Doo ones.  I thought Parker was going to get into a fistfight with Haley over the Scooby Doo gloves in the store, but I got him interested in a blue pair with green caterpillars on them.

Haley posing with her first plant.  This was one she chose herself, the first one she picked out.  It was also the first one she wanted to plant.

By this time Parker had decided gardening was not for him and had gone off to play in the sandbox instead.  I was just sure digging hole would appeal to him!  Guess not!

Haley was starting to get a bit bored too I think.  She started walking along and balancing on the root of a tree we have planted there.

She did plant one more flower though.  An orange one that she picked out herself.

That was enough gardening for her though, and she was off to jump on the trampoline, followed very quickly by Parker.

I ended up planting the rest of them by myself.  Afterwards I took photos of them.  I meant to look on the flower pots to see exactly what they all were, but I forgot, so the only one I know is the first one, which is a hydrangea.

Macro of the hydrangea.

The sun was a bit bright for this one.  It looks as if it's glowing.  The sky was alternately bright and dreary, so photographing was rather difficult.

Macro of the same flower, which showed up better.

This one turned out rather dark I thought.  Parker picked it out.

Macro of the same flower.

I should know what these next ones are, because my mom always had some of them growing when I was a kid, but I can't for the life of me remember what they are.  Maybe impatiens?

Macro of whatever they are. 

I picked these ones out.  I thought they were beautiful.  Simple but pretty.

Macro shot.

Haley picked these orange ones out.  They're so bright!  She said they were stinky though.

Macro.

And the very last flower.

Macro.

I couldn't resist a macro of its leaves too.  They were so unique.

Now here is what our efforts have produced.  (See Haley in the background?  She was all for helping again once the water hose came out!)

Not exactly a great change, but I plan on continuing the work on it.  Can't wait to see what we can make it into!  I just hope the kids get more into it.