Another Bloom

I planted a few new lilies in the side garden.  Most of them are day lilies, quite a few are transplanted lilies from the front garden.. but this one is a new one:  Joie de Vivre.  Here is its first bloom :)

What is it

Our dog, Penny, was playing with this in the front yard.  What is it?  (It's upside down.)  It's a fairly large bug, kind of creepy looking.


Ok, for something nicer to view... the red passion flowers are blooming a lot!

Half of a Holy Spirit

I bought this lily because I liked the name... ok, silly reason, right?  It's called the Holy Spirit Lily.  It bloomed today in my lily garden for the first time.  But only with half a bloom??

I'm also happy that both passion vines survived last year's winter.  I planted them so that the blooms would mingle and they did :)

Picture share

I mentioned in the last post about planting small flowers around the trees....

I look forward to the plants getting bigger and the trees going into pink and white blooms!

In the previous post, I also mentioned a plant I want to dig up.  In the below picture, it's the one to the right:

I want to put a hummingbird plant (which blooms red/orange flowers) in its place....

The "before" shot of the driveway garden

The "after" shots... I have lilies, iris and agapanthas growing..

What's really neat this year in the front garden (which was planted last year), is seeing how the plants that survived the winter come up - what they look like.  The caladiums came back :)

Most of the front garden came back... love the blue black salvias:

The Monarch butterflies have been visiting regularly.

I'm also trying a few new plants in the front garden.... Kim said the blue one (picture below) is not an easy one to keep... it looks good in this picture, but it's a couple of weeks since I planted it and already it's a little icky looking..

Another butterfly bush (purple - below) - bought this at Lowe's on sale.  It was mostly brown.  We'll see if it makes it.

And this pink one was on sale at Lowe's too.  Kim said they should be easy to grow.

My husband and I also found some great deals on Zinnia's this year.  This is just one picture, but I have them planted throughout the front and side gardens.  I love the bright splash of colors!

One plant from last year, which Kim and I wondered if it would take... the purple passion flower in the front garden.  I have a purple and red passion flower in my backyard that took off very well this year from last year... but the one in the front garden was a tiny little sprout from Kim's garden and the bugs got to it last year... but it came back.. and THIS year for the FIRST time, it bloomed!  Just beautifully!

The Grounds Keeper

The weather took a turn for the cool side... in May!  in New Orleans!  That's unheard of.

But good for gardening, in long pants.  But I still pulled up my hair and had on a short sleeve shirt.  I worked in the garden with my friend, Kim, for about 6 hours on Saturday.  And that is how I ended up with a sun burn on my arms and face and OUCH - on my EARS!!  Never had that happen before.  It hurts!

We pulled up weeds and planted a few new additions to the big garden, such as Zinnias and a purple Butterfly Bush.  The cost is normally 8 dollars for the Butterfly Bush, but there was one on sale at Lowe's for 2 dollars.  True, it looks a little on the unhealthy side, but heck, that's how I bought the firecracker plant last year and it's blooming like crazy right now!  I'm praying the Butterfly Bush comes to life like that too.

Another addition to the gardens ~ around the four crepe myrtle trees, we weeded in a circle and planted marigolds and other pretty flowers.  I like it :)  My mother-in-law said that I'm painting with my flowers :)

Something I wanted to do last year, but never got around to it, because of the pregnancy and well, mostly, because of the heat...  I'm starting on a lilly/iris garden.  It will be located on the small strip of land between the driveway and fence in the front yard.  Such a bland little piece of grass and I'm eager to fill it with bulbs and blooms.  I might even try for something to go up the fence.  First though, to tackle the grass being pulled up!

Oh and there's a tree/bush thing along the side of the house that I found out my husband doesn't like.  I only kept it, thinking he DID like it.  But when he said he didn't like the looks of it, both Kim and I cheered!  We're going to up root that sucker soon and find a pretty replacement.

I'm thrilled that almost all of the plants survived that are supposed to come back each year.  It tickles me to see them sprouting up from the ground. :)  It's God's garden... I'm just the grounds keeper :)