New flower bed!

After my wedding I had a left over metal box spring, some small wooden fence pickets and plants that needed a new home. A new flower bed was in my future.

I planned to put it essentially where the metal flowers are in this picture (I (I as in Joe) moved the metal flowers to the opposite side of the gate).

The box spring came from an old business/house that was being torn down. The owner said I could take anything I wanted and I fell in love when I found this cool piece. At the wedding, it leaned against a tree and was used to hold some of the rose petal cones

The fence pickets came from a garage sale. My wonderful Uncle Carson painted and made the pickets stand up on their own. They were on the stage in Welcome Hall. I took apart the fence pieces, added some metal stakes to them and used them to surround the flower bed.

I then placed the box spring against a T-post (and connected it to the fence with wire), and planted a $3 Lowes clearance Jasmine vine in front of it. With a azela on both sides, society garlic in the front, some small clearance plants and mulch, the bed was almost complete but missing... something.
This bird bath was the missing piece. I got this at an estate sale a year ago and it had been sitting by my garden, in my "need to do something with it" section. A bit of paint later and it was the perfect addition to my new flower bed. Its amazing what some paint can do to something!
I am really loving how the bed turned out and can totally envision the plants grown up and blooming in it. I am especially happy I was able to repurpose some goodies from my wedding to make this bed complete. What type of things have you repurposed and put in your flower beds?

Signs of Life

I absolutely love springtime (who doesn't) and am constantly amazed how overnight things can completely change from dreary and gray to alive and colorful. Walking around the yard the past couple days I have found so many great surprises waiting for me. I know its sounds like I am exaggerating but each of these fun surprises truly bring joy to my heart (I don't have kids so these things are my everyday pleasures, bear with me!).

One of the most exciting things are my peach and plum tree leaves/ blossoms. I bought both of these trees from the Arbor Day Foundation and was (un)pleasantly surprised when I got a box of twigs in the mail. Literally they mailed plain sticks ranging from a foot to 2 feet in length with a damp paper towel in a plastic bag protecting the roots. Nonetheless, I planted my little twigs in November 2008 and little trees appeared later in the spring of 2009 (they ended the summer about 3.5 feet tall). With the drought of the summer I knew the trees energy was put towards survival rather that growth of the root structure so I was pretty worried that January's freeze would do them in. Well this afternoon was was really happy to see pink buds getting ready to blossom on my peach tree and little leave growing on my plum tree. I know its probably unreasonable for me to hope for a few fruit to come from my grown up twigs in their second year of life at my house but my fingers are crossed.

A couple weeks ago I was pulling early weeds and found some little leaves from the cilantro I planted last year in a container. How exciting! I most definitely made a Mexican dinner that evening to celebrate and will continue to enjoy its harvest throughout the season (and hopefully beyond).

When I bought a small thing of curled parsley last year and planted it directly in my poor (clay) soil I had few hopes for survival. I was wrong. besides the basil and sage, the parsley did the absolute best (my potted flat leaf Italian parsley did not prosper nearly as must and will be planted directly in the ground this year). I had fresh parsley on just about every dinner last year and and happy I can re-introduce this herb in my meals.

Like the trees, I did not think my new hydrangeas would make it. I am happy to be proven wrong by these green leaves.
I don't think anything represents spring better than lily's and tulips. I didn't have time this year to plant tulips (that to do is already on next years checklist) but for now the lily's are more than adequate.

I didn't use thyme a lot last year but its coming back strong so I will have to try out some recipes with it this year.

And even the weeds are responding to the nice weather....

Hopefully soon I will have a little chick too. This hen, Circumstance (her fellow bantam roosters name is Pomp, get it?) has been sitting on an egg and some golf balls for about 2 weeks. In about 2 weeks there should be a new chick in the hen house!