POND VISITOR

Besides the bee's surrounding the Water Hyacianth, there is another admirer to the pond. It is a beautiful copper colored dragon fly. He seems to prefer to visit during the hottest part of the mid-day. He hovers over the pond, then lands on the Plumeria on the island in the middle of the pond and gazes over the pond. Sometimes he will disappear into the distance for a few minutes, but always returns to gaze upon his territory. We have named him Rumplestillskin. Recently he has been bringing a friend. She is very iridescent, so deserves her name as Tinker Bell.

They are a beautiful addition to our landscape in progress!

BEFORE & AFTER

I am very excited to see my garden still thriving...

BEFORE...

AFTER...

Still Digging

The Dream Garden is a dream come true. It is growing like crazy, and really enjoyed the winter rains. Scott continued to have a problem keeping the mulberry twigs on my path leading to the garden, so we finally dug it out and put in a bark path, to match the one in the garden. I LOVE IT!

Scott is back to digging again. The plumbing has been buried around the outside of the pool, I mean pond. Now he is digging a hole for the top of the waterfall, leading down to the pool, I mean pond. Today we were excited to notice one of our vines producing flowers for the first time since we bought it 2 years ago. It came home with a couple buds from the garden store, then promptly never budded again. What a beautiful site to see pretty purple trumphets. I planted garlic cloves last October, to grow over the fall and winter. They are not ready to harvest yet, but we are anxiously awaiting the turnout of our first homegrown garlic. Just planted tonite, several varieties of tomatoes... and jalepeno, serrano and habanero peppers. Along with red bell pepper and cucumbers. We are still keeping an eye out for some more peppers, as we need a full batch for our summer salsa makings!

IS IT SPRING YET???

Shopping Spree

My aunt Carol gave me a generous Home Depot gift card encouraging more plants for my garden dream. So today I went on a shopping spree.

I added my other Cana Lily in front of the fountain. Oh, how pretty it will be when it grows tall and shoots out another bloom. What a view from the dining room it will be. Behind the Cana Lily, I planted a Big Leaf Philodendron. This will add to the tropical garden theme. Scott decided the Tree Fern (far right) would be too big for the far corner I put it in, so he moved it forward, so it will have more space to spread as it grows taller.

In the dream garden I added a Cape Honeysuckle. I was not able to find too much about it, but said it had fragrant flowers, so sounded nice, plus it was inexpensive :-)

To finish off the tour, I added another Star Jasmine, at the suggestion of mom. Behind the Polka Dot plant, I will train it to vine around the new gate Scott built for the garden. The day after I was laid off from my job, my friend Mildred showed up with these beautiful burgandy Mum's. I finally got them planted next to the Corrie Girls. Now there will be a fun story with this. As I stated in the previous blog, Mildred and Corrie used to be roomates, until Dred married, and now Corrie is a missionary in Italy. So, they may be seperated by an ocean now, but their namesakes are roommates again. Meet Dred's Mum's (Dred is a mommy too- how appropriate)Thank you Carol & Dred!

More Updates

It is hard to see, but I planted an Umbrella plant, between the Gardenia bush and the new fountain. I am hoping to pick up another Cana lily to plant in this area too. In the corner of this area, I planted a Tree Fern. We are looking forwar to seeing how this grows, as we would love to have more in our yard, near the "someday" pond (now a big hole!).

I bought some Narcissus bulbs for the fun of it. I have had such good luck with the Amarillis, that I wanted to try these this year. Keeping on the back porch until they go through their first year.

A stroll through my garden

Scott put up a gate for me. What an inviting entrance to the garden.Come on in and lets see what is growing.The Lobelia has started spreading and covering more ground. It looks so lush and pretty. The newest addition, the Canna Lilly has just gone crazy. It is now over 4' tall and surprised me with the most beautiful bloom.
Today I have added a Lace Fern, where the Blue Star Creeper never made it. I am looking forward to seeing how this Fern fares in this spot next to the bird bath.Across from the Canna Lily, I planted an Umbrella Plant (almost lower Rt side of the picture above). I grew up with these plants in our backyard. I remember fondling pulling one out of the bush and walking around with my Parasol.

I love to look back and see the transformation of this hidden area that had such an ugly start.

HOLES!

Wasnt there a movie, where kids were sent to a camp to dig holes all day long, then start again the next day? Scott may not be working for an underground construction company anymore, however, he still likes to dig.

Since the grass is still not doing well, he might as well start digging the pond in the back part of the yard.

He is planning a little island in the middle of the pond.

From the back corner of the yard will be a little stream/waterfall that will feed into the pond. He digs, then he reads. He reads, then he digs. He has admitted this is his therapy.