Spring Flower Beds

We have been so excited for spring to get here. Only, now that it's here we totally forgot about blogging!  Actually we didn't forget, I've just been outside working. So today is a rainy day and I'm inside and decided it was a good time to show you some of the flower beds that I've mulched these past weeks.

  We have lived here about nine years and I was out planting things even before we had our yard totally graded.

 I had a neighbor who was moving at the same time as we were and she removed her garden before she left, so she offered me all the plants she didn't want. Yeah ! I love FREE! I planted them down by the woods and later brought them up by the house.

I also got lots of plants from my mom's garden. I think that if you want to start a garden finding a gardener who will share plants is the best way to go. Not only do you get free plants, but most gardeners can also tell you about the plant and where the best place to plant it.

 This is my front walkway, I have lots of Ajuga, Suculents ,and Creeping Flox planted here. I like plants that are easy to grow and are not fussy.

 We planted six Bradford Pears in our front yard and I like how they look all year round. They bloom in spring, vibrant green in summer, turn red when most trees have already lost most of their leaves, and in winter you can admire their beautiful shape.

This is the right side of our driveway, I have some ornamental grasses and lots of lambs ears here.

Here's the other side of the driveway. I have Nandina, Lillis and some ground covers next to the driveway.

On the other side of the wall is another big flower bed with lots of ornamental grasses, Creeping Flox, different succulents, ground covers and many other flowers. This is one of the flower beds I have not mulched yet, I'm waiting for some seedlings to pop out first. I will post again when they have reached their full height. Speaking of mulch I have found that our city offers free mulch at our recycling center!

I also want to share this arrangement I put together with plants I had inside all winter long. These plants survived through the winter! (I'm not very good with indoors plants) I wanted to compact them a little because they were in lots of little pots and taking up too much space. I found the bigger container last fall on our adventure to the dump (we used it to collect old bottles.) It already had holes in the bottom so I added potting soil and Ivy all around the edges. In the middle I put another galvanized container I had from a garage sale. I filled it with potting soil and arranged the plants I had bought last fall at Lowe's. I can't wait for the plants to fill in, I know they will thrive outside. I love it because I did it with things I already had on hand!