soaphouse's Blog
soaphouse's posts about: knockout
Mar 23, 2008 | 5:22 PM PST
Tags: easter , egg , maple , azalea , lilac , frost , freeze , raised bed , veggie bed , single knock out rose , knockout , creeping phlox
We have had a wonderful Easter weekend in the garden! Yesterday, i was able to sneak away to my favorite local nursery to check out their spring inventory. It was SO exciting! Everything looked so wonderful it was very hard to control myself :) But, I was a good girl and only picked up 2 small single knock outs- hot pink variety and 5 small sized creeping phlox (2 lavender and 3 hot pink).
The knockouts have been on my list for a while. I have been wanting to plant them at the base of the new "sculpture" at the front window seat bed. Not only will they add nice color all season, but they will give some interest to that bed during the winter when all the perennials are dormant:
See them on either side there? I know...they are small now, but luckily those guys are fairly fast growing!
The Creeping Phlox went in the berm in the front yard along side the driveway. I just love the little punches of color and I know they will fill in nicely and provide great weed supression:
That was all done yesterday. Today, after Easter service, we had a wonderful little egg hunt for my daughter in her grandmother's back yard:
She has such a wonderful yard for that and my little girl had so much fun!
When hubby and I got home, he finished up the veggie bed fences - now they are all ready to plant up come April 15th (our last frost date)
Speaking of frost, it is supposed to get down to about 32-34 degrees tonight...not too cold, but enough to make me worry a bit, so I attempted to cover the budding azaleas, my newly planted tree peony, the lilac, and the 3 Japanese maples. I do hope this helps....I guess its worth a try, not sure if I needed to bother but it makes me feel somewhat proactive.
Hope everyone had as nice of an Easter as we were blessed with!
Dec 27, 2007 | 2:20 PM PST
Tags: pine straw , mulch , winter weeds , weeding , knockout , alliums , tulip , daffodil , hellebore , linten rose , new year , bulbs , madame alfred
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I have been taking advantage of both the season end sales at the garden centers and my time off from work to get a lot of things done in the garden. My local garden center has all their left over bulbs on sale for 75% off, so I planted 20 purple and 20 orange tulips in the front yard. I also planted 30 daffodils by the azaleas in the back yard. I am still waiting on some allium bulbs I purchased on line. Those will go in the back yard so that I can see them while I do dishes :).
I got 2 more double knockouts for 50% off to compete the grouping by the bird house.
I also spent a good bit of time applying a generous layer of pine straw over the front beds. It took 36 bales! It used to take 90+, but now that the plants are growing in niceley...it takes less. It feels so good to have this done. Here are some picts:
Yesterday, after taking down most of the Christmas decor, I spent a majority of the afternoon weeding the back yard and getting it ready for its winter pine straw application. I have 2 Madame Alfred Roses on order that I will plant on either side of the arbor in the back. I selected this particular rose because: it is thornless, evergreen, climbing, and blooms white....the only rose I could find that met all of these criteria (which is what I wanted for the arbor).
While I was doing this work in the back, I noticed that for the first time, my hellebores are blooming! I got these as little seedlings from my mom's garden 4 yrs ago...patience pays off!
Can't wait for my goodies to come in the mail...but I really can't wait to see the bulbs come up in the spring!
Happy New Year Everyone!
