oranges, house plants, and Christmas decorations

We really enjoyed our first orange from our orange tree today.  We have had two oranges growing on it since last winter.

I had so much fun at Steins on Black Friday especially since I got a scratch off card for 25% off my entire purchase.  So I picked up some new air plants, mini plants for my new terrarium (our blender that doesn't work anymore) and some spider plants and a pot.  Here is one picture.

While I was at Steins I also picked up some pine boughs to make our garage decoration.  This year I used four wire hangers to give it support and I think it turned out really well.

I also love this snowman (a doorbuster at Home Depot) and these window lighted graphics (a doorbuster at Steins).

It’s been a while….

The rain this summer is causing my weeds to grow faster than my plants.  I’ve never seen such large weeds.  At my parents house I understand the rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks are eating and digging up things you would never expect them to (rhubarb, jalapeños, etc.) so I don’t know how many vegetables we will get.

The tomato plants at my place in topsy turveys are growing nicely but have few flowers:

As to flowers, some are blooming beautifully.  Here is the plot I planted last summer:

My sister and nephew helped me pick out the plants for this hanging pot and I really love how it has filled out.

My calla lilies:

My 3-in-1 Angel Trumpet:

Various other plants around the yard:

And our latest addition to our yard, a ceramic fountain that I bought from Ceramic Daisy Studio at the Cambridge Pottery festival a few weekends ago:

The rocks are in!

I had a ton and a half of large Mississippi river rocks delivered by Certified Products, Inc. last Monday and we bit by bit worked on washing them and placing them and finally finished this morning.

For my 6 year old nephew who insisted on putting the larger rocks in a circle the day he helped me pick them out, I did keep some of them in a circle.

To completely finish the project, this summer I plan to kill the grass and weeds and then plant various bulbs around the dry pond and the mulch the area all around the pond.

We had extra rocks so we used them under our bird feeder (which was original sand when we moved in until the weeds took over).

Also, I finally got my herbs planted.

And here are some pictures of the beautiful flowers starting to bloom in my yard and in pots.

Big Front Yard Project–Thank you Dad and Paul!

So I have this vision of mounded areas with a dry pond between and a bridge going over it with flowers of course, and a bird bath, and some lawn art.  So I set aside today to start that project. 
10 cubic yards of plant starter soil arrived about 8:00 a.m. from Certified Products Inc. in New Berlin, WI.  I had hoped that he would be willing to drive on my lawn to dump it in the spots I wanted it but it had rained too much in the previous days.  So he dumped a pile on the driveway and a pile on just off the driveway.
I managed to move 30 wheelbarrows of dirt before my dad arrived at about 10:30 a.m.  That was also when my husband finished work (he worked from home).  So with their help (and they were a huge help), we created a masterpiece.  We managed to get it all done with the exception of putting the rocks in the dry pond.
So without further adieu, here are the before and after pictures.


For those interested in the plants, on the larger mound (closest to the driveway), I planted Astilbes (Mighty Pip and Mighty Red Quin) and Periwinkle along with some woodland wildflowers.
On the smaller mound, I planted St John’s Wart, Creeping Red Sedum, and again some woodland wildflowers.  I’ll share pictures as they come up.

My husband says I have too many pots.

He may not realize I still have five more to bring out.

At the farmer’s market yesterday I couldn’t resist these double impatiens and geraniums.

I also couldn’t resist this unique vine plant which is a black eyed susan variety.

I added a bay leaf tree to our kitchen window sill.  The pepper plant we bought at Sam’s club months ago is starting to produce new peppers.

Our ferns are coming back.

As I may have said in a previous post, all of our hydrangeas came back.