landscaping queen

i spent a good bit of monday and tuesday getting some new plants for our front landscaping. it has been bare for awhile and i decided it was time to add some green (and hopefully soon, some purple, too). i headed out to home depot and found some plants to my liking and then brought them back and went to work. if our yard was not composed of fill dirt (i.e. red clay), i am sure the digging would have gone a bit more quickly. but alas, i got a great workout digging my holes (and found some "gifts" leftover from the construction crew- a diet sunkist can, a paint roller- the handle part, extra concrete, and a burger king ketchup packet). anyway, i digress.

i bought some hostas, english lavender, and a few dwarf yaupon holly bushes to finish out the front. i would like to add some bulbs this fall, and hopefully by then i will have forgotton how hard it is to dig in that dirt and will be ready for the occasion! here's a view of what i have added:

hostas for the border (then we can eventually remove the rocks)

english lavender (it already smells fantastic)

holly bush

added to the boxwoods we left from moving in, it should fill in quite nicely

a full view, including the new flag pole :)

south african weeds

okay. maybe not "weeds." but, during my travels to the western cape of south africa, i saw fields full of calla lillies. we, and by we i mean the female travellers, were astonished that they were described as wild flowers. it is their "rosidia florabunda." (i.e. roadside flowers) i have searched through the photos from the trip and cannot find a "field shot," but have found a close-up to prove it...





... those are actually growing on the side of a mountain. crazy, i know. they are native to south africa, actually. well, this year, i planted 4 calla bulbs on my back bank. three of them came up (i think the 4th is on a long quest to asia) and this week they began to bloom. i think it is quite exciting; this is the first time i have ever planted bulbs and i think 3 out of 4 isn't bad. in fact, all of my/our flowers and trees are doing well this year.






i think they are lovely. i am sure you have realized that not much as been posted this month. well, not much has been going on, really. work is still work... busy. we have gone to kingsport a couple of times- one weekend trip and one day trip. this coming weekend we are going to knoxville for the 4th of july celebration at jay's uncle rick's. we haven't been in a few years, and it's always a fun day at the lake with good food, family/friends, and great fireworks. and then the next weekend my mom and dad are coming in for a visit. so things will be picking up here again soon. (sometimes it's just nice to take a little break.)

all things green (and a little pink, too)

i really wanted to post this yesterday, but during my day of errand-running leisure, i neglected to snap these pictures of the green in our yard. it is quite refreshing and gets me ready for summer. (even though summer most likely includes a battle of flies, japanese beetles, and the fresh smell of cow poop, for lack of a better word (and the one i really wanted to use). in my day of leisure, did i mention i got to go to both of our Targets? i didn't? don't know how i forgot to mention that one! hmm. must have slipped my mind.

anywho, i wanted to share some pictures with you of the lovely green (and bits of pink!) we have growing in our yard. it is wonderful and we are so happy that our trees we planted last year have survived. we were a little worried, especially about our bald cypress, but it is thriving this spring. i blogged about our flowers and trees last year and also about when we got our american elm sapling and the view from our back porch. click on the links and go back a year and look how things have changed compared with the pictures i am about to share. it's amazing how one year can bring about so much change. (and that is true for much of life, isn't it?)

so, without further rambling and wordiness ado, here is how our yard is shaping up this year.

the maple

our not-so-bald cypress

the american elm, that we transplanted monday to a bigger pot


our dogwood that came from my mom's house (and is a bit bushy)




vinca that is adding lots of color to 3 pots on the back porch

impatiens on the front porch...

...really add to the whole package, don't you think?

(and in other news, because i'm sure you are dying to know because the title of this blog suggests that i knit just fyi, i have been knitting a scarf that i promised to knit, oh, about a year and a half ago, and i will post pictures before it gets mailed on its merry way to somewhere in these united states for a birthday that will take place in the next 2 months. come on? you didn't think i would tell you who it is for, did you? :)

taking time to smell the roses

update!!! here is the picture of my rose from my mammogram. (after it recovered from being wilted.)

today i had my first mammogram. it had a few unpleasant moments, but was not that bad. my physician felt that with my family history it would be a good idea to have a baseline. october is national breast cancer awareness month, and as a result, the imaging group handed out long stem roses to every woman who got a mammogram this month. (mine is hot pink! and, currently, a bit wilted.)

after leaving my appointment, i headed over to the biltmore (which was almost just across the street) to view the gardens at the conservatory (and get my money's worth out of my season pass). i had no idea the roses would still be blooming, so i was able to enjoy the fall flowers and summers last hoorah in the rose garden. it is too bad that you can't scratch and sniff these roses. the air was warm and fragrant with a blend of all the roses. the bees were happy today, too, buzzing from flower to flower. after touring the gardens, i walked back in through the conservatory and enjoyed what was in the cool house. i am about to share a lot of pictures. i would have tried to write down the names of the roses, but there were just too many. so just enjoy the pictures (and know there are many more where these came from).

fall flowers

can you imagine planting all of these mums?

summer's remnants
there was a happy bee in this rose

no, it isn't a rose... this summer the pergolas were used for growing cucumbers and zucchini.

the conservatory

the non-thank-you flower

so in the south apparently you are not allowed to say thanks for any flower that comes from someone else's yard. if someone gives you a flower or plant or bulb that they have transplanted for you, you never say thank you. it is said to be bad luck and that said flower/plant will die or do poorly. my grandmother gave me these trumpet vines back in july when we were back in tennessee visiting. i have yet to transplant them into my own yard because i don't know exactly where i want them. one of them bloomed in late summer. two of them budded and did nothing. and this one opened this much and then never opened any further. but they are pretty and i wanted to share a couple of pictures.