Working in the Yard this Morning (Photo Essay)

I spent a few hours this morning continuing to work on my flowerbeds. I had picked up some garden decor items earlier in the week and also some more flowers yesterday. So I got them all planted where I wanted them.

I also created a new bed where I'll be placing a bird bath (once I find one I like) and planting the cosmo and colored daisy seeds I still have.

Here are some photos of my progress and also the new stuff that I added.

I picked up this planter sized glass butterfly earlier this week. It's in the pot that sits at the bottom of the front deck stairs now.

The lower driveway bed is really filling out. Bunnies got to one of my purple phlox and ate it down to the ground. There is already new growth and buds on it. I added a new dusty miller plant behind it and I think that helped. I also added a garden angel to this bed. There is a closeup of her shown below.

I picked up a mushroom decoration and placed it by the bradford pear tree where the turtle used to be.

I moved the turtle onto the hill of the main pine island that encompasses most of the front yard. He looks better here anyway.

My roommate is a pack rat. The guy keeps everything. Plus whenever his mother is getting rid of stuff, he always takes it. So we have about 15 different pots and planters that never get used. I decided to change that and actually use them.

I planted the pot shown above today. It has vine petunias and dusty miller in it. I think it will look great in about a week when it starts to fill out.

I planted this one today also and carried it out to the pine island, near the side of the driveway. This area gets a lot of morning sun. All the flowers in here said full or part sun. So I hope they do ok. I was never able to get anything to grow here because of drainage problems, but I think the planted pot will work out well.

Here's an update on the upper bed with my encore azalia in full bloom now. Across the sidewalk from this is where I started to make a new bed.

I need another bag of dirt though before I can plant. This is where I plan to put a bird bath once I find one I like. I also am going to plant the cosmo and colored daisy seeds I have along the back area. I'll probably add impatens or some other shade liking plant in the front area.

I then got out the gallon of Roundup and proceeded to take care of many pesky weeds as well as some virginia creeper and poison ivy that's sprouting up in various locations. While I was doing this, I discovered two unkept rose bushes that were along the woodline of our lower side yard.

The poor things haven't been pruned in about 8 years and were all over the ground. They were a mess, but there were several buds and one bloom on them.

I found these two iron stake things that were leftover from when my roommate tried to have a garden and I used them to help prop up the rose bushes as best as they could be propped up.  I also trimmed the dead sections from each of them and gave them a little miracle grow with water.

I think they'll have some nice flowers in about a week.

And now that I know they exist, I'll prune them at the end of the season so they'll be better shaped next year.

It seems to be coming along nicely don't you think?