Gardening is sweaty, fun hobby!

This was the Spring of YARD REORGANIZATION AND TROPICALIZATION

A good friend from El Salvador (neigbhor and gardner extraordinaire) came over to help me plant some new flower beds and told me how ugly some bushes were...which was TRUE! They were super duper prickly and when I was weeding or planting all year, I'd invariably get pricked, even by dried up, brown leaves from these bushes. They formed a front row of bushes in front of the ones you see below; my friend and I dug them up and drove them to back of our undeveloped neighborhood :)  Yea!!!

Now that area looks like this: 

and with my Hyacinth bean ivy plant growing...

ah, I had help digging up a giant patch of grass (can you call that a "patch"?) in each corner of my yard with friends so that I could plant the Hyacinth beans that grew into a Ginormous gorgeous green and purple vine last year. I also planted my favorite Hawaiian flower: g            . I hope it grows BIG; also put in the big green oleander which make me think of tropical areas; and flowers: gerbera daisies and lantana, two favorite flowers. Later, we added red and green peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and a pumpkin plant for Nick :)

These areas (there are 3 of them in the backyard) were planted by our previous home owners and the plants have flourished !! The crepe myrtles flower all summer, even in the heat! and the yellow daffodil-types are bright and cheery. We added some small flowers that are bright pink and purple and we love being in the backyard, which THANKFULLY, is shaded every night by about 6:30pm. Football and trampoline games begin!

 NEW PROJECTS:

 New flower bed! Our fence fell down in a recent tornado-like wind storm (see the giant hail in another posting) and when Ted put it back up, I asked him to move the fence up toward the front yard. Now our bathroom window is in the backyard instead of the front yard. I am a fan of sunlight streaming in bathrooms, so I am thrilled about the "new" sideyard that allows for privacy & sunlight at the same time. Yea!
  I also am super excited about the orange/yellow/red cana lillies that I bought in the PERRENIALS section: they will come back with a VENGENCE every year! along with this little Hydrangea (my favorite flowering bush). So this cute zone outside of our bathroom window will become lush and make me feel a tiny bit like I live in Hawaii...as does the humidity and sun. :)

These new petunias are so cute! They spread out and grown all over -- plus they are two-toned and I put them right ourside our bedroom window!

 Our new vine this year, these gorgeous flowers are in a pot, but I am thinking  they ought to be in the dirt near one of our fences. But I love having them right outside the kitchen window too much to move them:

Our herb garden this year includes the usual thyme, basil (and cinnamon basic this year!), rosemary, oregano and sage; I added a mint bush this year. Yummm!!! I could still use some gourmet cooking lessons to better utilize these aromatic, tasty additions to our meals...any offers? or ideas? good recipes? please email them to me! :)   Thanks!!

I finally got an electric bush trimmer (I am feeling the power!!) to trim our many bushes. I was doing them, one branch at a time with a little set of hand trimmers. When I saw this basic electric trimmer for about $20, I was pretty excited!

love this growing flower vine!!

it gave me about 130 seeds last Fall and I dispersed most of them to friends

then put some all around the front and back yards :)

Whew...

I didn't even mention my hauling a truck-full of mulch and compost and carting to and fro all over the yard to the new beds...I have a grand appreciation of mulch now!