a garden tour and some craftiness, too

We have been busy bees, my friends. Want to see what has kept us occupied for the past several weekends?


This bed was in place when we bought the house. I wish I had a photo of it from back then. There was a sad little arborvitae in the near corner behind the 2 hosta, the rhododendron that you now see behind the rock was in front of the two hosta, and there was a bramble-y bush of some sort smushed in next to those. It was a WRECK, I tell you. Ugh. The first summer I yanked the bramble-y bush right out, moved the rhododendron to its present location, and planted a few marigolds for color. Daughter was newborn and nursing, so I couldn't do much else. There was no edging or mulch so it was pretty much a weedy mess most of the time.

Last summer Hubs yanked the arborvitae and put it in the back yard. I don't think I planted any flowers...no, I didn't. I was pregnant and having complications so there was no gardening for me. Again, weedy mess. Oh, except for those two smaller hosta at the end. I did get those and put them in.

This year, though! It is the year of beautification of our little old house. We refer to our home projects as "putting lipstick on this pig," and the flower beds are no exception. When we decide to sell there have to be as many pretty distractions as possible. However, we are not talented gardeners, so we go with 'simple and hardy' planting.

We first dug the bed a bit larger and added plastic edging. Then we added some topsoil, split one of the giant hosta, and planted impatiens and hens & chicks (if you have never seen these before, check them out. They grow anywhere, including on rocks, and look totally cool). Finally, I mulched the bejeebers out of the whole bed and voila! This photo doesn't do it justice. It looks quite nice in person. Hubs just trimmed the grass at the edges yesterday, which is why it looks all brown and weird.


This bed is brand new. It runs the entire length of the front of the house, which is the family room. It's about 4' deep by 20' long, and we dug the sod out manually (well, you know, with spades). That is the most horrible job ever. Even with gloves, my fingertips hurt for days from pulling up the chunks of grass. There are 5, count 'em 5, hosta in this bed that we took from just one plant in the first bed. Yeah, it was really out-of-control big. There is a lavendar plant at the far end, and I'm guessing about 2 dozen pink impatiens throughout. Also edged and mulched.


Another brand new bed. This one is about 4' by 13' and runs the length of the porch. Please excuse the peeling porch paint, we haven't gotten to that project yet. Here we have a lavendar plant (far end), two Aurora Blue delphinium, and a rhododendron in between. Another 9 or so impatiens finish it off. Edged and mulched as well. My porch planter there has snapdragons in the middle, peonies around it, and some sort of trailing plant at the base that hasn't grown enough to really trail over the edge yet.

In addition we have 3 hanging plants and 3 pots on the porch, but I'm not keen on showing a whole frontal shot of my house just in case. You know.

Anyway, we did it all by hand and all by ourselves. And now I am tired.


So I get this kid to water everything for me. Yeah, she looks a little young to be working, but she had ID, so what can I say? I hired her.

Moving indoors...

Here are some sweet linen pants I just finished for Daughter. I want a pair, too! (Forgive the wrinkles, please. Daughter was wearing them earlier.)


I just used a basic pull-on pants pattern but I was inspired to add this embroidery at the bottom of the leg by the blue ric-rac. It reminded me of water, so I thought some beach accessories might be cute. I traced the pattern out of a quilting book, and then ironed some interfacing to the wrong side for stability. I used a simple stem stitch with summery colors and ta-da! Cutie, one-of-a-kind pants.


These are the yarny projects I'm currently dragging around with me. There are others (the blue shawl, the coral-ish tank) but these are in active rotation this week. There is the sock for Hubs (and his birthday is in about a month so I'd better bust a move on those), the sleeves of a sweater for Daughter, and underneath you see a simple crocheted ripple blanket that I started to use up some acrylic leftovers. Not sure where it will end up - it might become a donation.

I've also got some sewing in various stages of done-ness. As always, stay tuned...