Flower Boxes, Garden Tips, Landscape and My Own Backyard

An amazing thing has happened - 

We bought and planted some TREES!!

Honestly, after building the house, there was just no extra $ to do this!  So, I'm excited :-)

Those three plants from Left to Right are:

Wolf Eyed (Kousa) Dogwood

(known as a slow grower - hence the fact I am excited to get it in the ground!)

I also found out that you can EAT the berries it produces!

Multi Stemmed River Birch

(I am so in love with that peeling bark!!!)

source

Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce

(a little cutie)

source

So overall we bought 15 trees - pretty much all the trees that will be in our front yard.  No bushes or shrubs yet and we haven't barked or rocked the area either.... all in time!  

I'll wait till October when the trees are turning color and snap a shot for you guys!!!!  

I had a lot of fun with my window boxes this year.  In June I had stopped by a fruit stand and they had these filler flowers that had "Seen Better Days" and so they were selling them for .33 cents each!  How could I go wrong?  Ya, they look wilted and wimpy but isn't that what WATERING and fertilizer is for?

So for under 15 bucks each box - here is what I got!

.33 cents for that luscious hot pink wave petunia!!

That planter I got at 80% off one year at Target - it was a Smith and Hawkins copper planter that was originally 100 bucks and I got it for 20!!  Love Target sales!

I have a fun tip for all you novice gardeners.  I say novice because all you advanced green thumbs might already know this but when I learned it I was floored!

Did you know you can put your geraniums from the year before in the garage ALL WINTER LONG and they will come back for SUMMER!!!!  You just water them once a month and trim them back a little.  

I didn't know I was supposed to trim them so they became really top heavy this year but these are the SAME red flowers I had last year that sat in my garage all winter.  

That's cool - huh!!  Talk about a good money saving tip - right?

That's it for this gardener - next year maybe trees for the BACK yard which will include some fruit trees!!!  

Is there anything better than picking fruit in the summer from your own backyard?   Oh and some raspberry bushes - that's on the "must have" list.  

Someday it will all come together......I'm working on patience :-)