Coincidence?

That the most wonderful time of the year...

...produces the most wonderful cactus blossoms of the year? I think not.

Tomatoes for Everybody!!

Well, we thought gardening season was long behind us (no pumpkins or squash this year as Michael comandeered my garden and filled it with tomatoes). When he went out this morning to clear out the plants, he came inside with these!

TONS of tomatoes! We'll do our best to ripen the green ones and then make up some spaghetti sauce for winter! Mmmmm.

Maybe some BLT's are in order for lunch.

Everything's Coming Up Roses!

We love to garden, but we have challenging soil.

As in the clay is so solid, you can dig a hole, fill it with water and the water will be there a week later!

So, it's a real challenge to find something that thrives! The last couple years have involved a bit of trial and error, but we seemed to have found a fit!

These knock-out roses are aptly named.

And are adding a lovely spurt of fuchsia around the yard and we're loving it!

Here's to hoping they survive a scorching KS summer!

Magnolias and Cherry Blossoms and Heaven in KC!

So, as you can tell from the post below...I simply ADORE spring flowers and the beautiful tree blossoms we have here in Kansas City.

My all time-favorite is the Magnolia. However, I don't (yet) have a Magnolia tree in my yard and haven't had the time to go on a spring photo-taking adventure. And now I fear I may have missed the window to capture these beautiful blooms.

But fear not! A lovely co-worker has posted some beautiful shots here. I think you'll enjoy them. And her photography skills far exceed mine! Enjoy!

Spring

Has sprung in these parts....

And it's simply......beautiful!

Muddy Mahem!

So....there is clearly a reason people hire professional landscapers. Up until this weekend, we didn't know what that reason was, because we consider ourselves to be amateur landscapers. Very amateur. We are constantly building walls, moving dirt, adding plants, moving plants, killing plants, you get the idea.

Over the weekend, we started here:


...transferring plants around our yard to better suit their sun/lackthereof needs. We fixed this area too: And this one (turns out my beloved hydrangeas don't do so well in 12+ hours of 100 degree hit and direct sun):

Oh, and we uprooted the rhododendrons here and moved them to the backyard, replacing them with much more colorful (and hopefully tougher) plants.

So you would think the 12 hours of labor, 3 trips to home depot and 2 people it took to do all the above would have been enough for one weekend. You'd be wrong. We also decided to dig up this little area to add some interest... ...and absorb a bit of extra water.

Due to the slight water problem we decided to avoid a rotor-tiller, and instead overturn all of the soil ourselves.

That was a bad idea.

It just kept getting wetter and wetter and wetter...



Until the plants we were trying to relocate started to float. Something about a sump-pump drain.

Well, after much effort, we finally finished:

And when you can't see the standing water, it looks ok. But...we've still not settled the mounds of muddy mayhem quandary.

Maybe we'll figure that out next weekend.

WHAT Were We Thinking???

We had the muddiest, sloppiest, back-breaking-ist weekend EVER!! It was hilarious and exhausting and we have no idea what's going to happen now! We may have that "lakeside view" I've always wanted in a home...YIKES!!

However...I couldn't, for the life of me, get the photos to upload last night!! So...I'll try again to night!

If the computer isn't under water, that is.

A Gorgeous Day in the O.P....Which is Good and Bad

You know you're a farm girl at heart when this makes you happy:

You know you're a farm girl in Johnson County when this makes you really happy:


:)

Today was an absolutely beautiful day! By 1pm, we'd run 4 miles, biked another 5, watched a soccer game and started the gardening. Which, in case you were wondering, is going well thus far! Here are the Rhododendrons, which seem to be adjusting to their new home with beautiful flair:


However, a resident bunny is doing a number on my blue fescue grass and beloved Hydrangeas!
Any idea what to do about that?

The dooger dog seems to be recovering nicely...

..and entertained Michael, the in-laws and I with his antics while we relaxed in the sun.

Today is Syttende Mai, Norwegian Constitution Day, so you think that would remind me of my Scandinavian hertiage and I would use great caution in the sun. However, since it was only in low 70's, I didn't pay any attention and worked in the sun all day. Now, as I write this, I am f-r-i-e-d to a crisp. Uff. No worries, there are no pics! haha. Oh, well. Now I remember.

Cheers!

Sarah

Warmer Weather = Landscape Mania. Again.

Well, I hate to jinx anything, but it looks as though the warm weather may have come to stay.

Which is a good thing, yes.

However, my dear husband has a borderline obsession with propensity for projects. Which is why he built 3 retaining walls and landscaped three separate areas with in the first week of summer last year. Sigh.

So for the last couple weekends we've looked at the landscaping, much of which we did last summer, and decided what would stay, what would go, and what was just, well, dead. And much of it was. Dead.

Then, we made our selections and tore into it with reckless abandon. Ok, a very deliberate plan, but that doesn't sound as fun.


The dead azaleas were heartlessly torn out (they were so beautiful when they actually bloomed last year)...
And a new Hydrangeas* were lovingly added in!

Along with a couple new Rhododendrons, so Blue Fescue for accent, and my personal favorite, a lilac tree (all bonsai-ed) for a centerpiece!

Here it is! I grew up with the HEAVENLY scent of lilacs all summer in MN and one slight whiff brings me back to childhood in a split second. Mmmm.

This bush was a first anniversary gift from Michael.

Here is the final result...so now we're just waiting for everything to fill out and fill in! Hopefully it will do so quickly, because my poor back can't handle many more weekends of this!

Ok, now that I look at the pic, it's not all that impressive. But it's much more striking in person. At least I think it is. Hmmm

*for a girl raised on the frozen tundra, the sweet, southern warmth and abundance the hydrangea represents is a gardening dream come true!