I love this time of year!!! Plants are blooming!

The plants are starting to bloom! Pictured above is one of our tree peonies. The blooms are so big! Then there is our lungwort with the wild ginger behind it. Next is our False Indigo in her pretty shade of yellow. We also have 2 purple ones. Another tree peoney is next. This one was only about 3 inches tall when I bought it about 5 years ago. It is a very lovely shade of purple. I can't forget our new yellow iris. It really is a nice compliment to the orchid coloered ones behind it. Then our fushia, now if only the hummingbirds would find it. Every year we buy a new piece of art, etc for the gardens. This year is our lovely hummingbird. I just love it! We went out again to a nursery we like about 2 hours away from us. We did manage to find a few new plants, but it is getting harder to find things that we don't already have or that will fit into any of our gardens. But of course if we do like a plant ( and I don't know of many that we don't like... LOL) we always find a place for it. I really need to go out and count all the different plants we have. We don't have many duplicates. We have at least 45 daylillies and 35 Hostas but none that are the excact same plant. So that is 80 plants alone with just these 2 families of plants. Have I said that I LOVE plants?? We still have to plant the ones we bought on saturday, but at 90 degrees I will wait until the weekend when it is suppose to be cooler. Anyway this is a small look at our gardens. Hugs, Teresa

My mini house I have been working on - pictures

This is a log cabin that I have been working on. I ought the "logs" from a home improvement center. It was by the full sized door casings, etc. The "logs" came in 7 foot lengths and I cut each one. They are half rounds. Flat on one side.  I think I might have gotten a little smaller ones but I like the way they turned out. I still have one side to do, but I have to decide on a door yet. I also have to stain or paint them. I noticed a few came loose on the ends so I will have to glue and clamp them down until they dry. It was so nice to work in the sunroom where I can look out at the flower beds. he last 2 days were so nice and things are starting to bloom. Early this year, but I am so glad to see color. Winter is always long. Anyway here are the pictures. I hope you like what I am doing so far. Teresa

Mini's outdoors

Well actually in our sunroom. It is so nice to work out there where I can see all the flowers growing. I am working on the HBS (Hobby Builders Supply) contest so I am sorry that there aren't any pictures. But it has been a beautiful weekend.
After Jeff got off work yesterday we planted the plants that we bought at the Flower Factory. 13 moe perennials. People always ask us were we find room for more plants. But our beds are not full yet. I don't know what we will do when they are though as we can't make anymore beds. We don't have alot of lawn left. LOL. The lawn that we do have sets of the beds nicely. I wish I could get a picture of the whole yard to show you. I would have to climb up on the neighbors roof and I don't think they would like that idea much. LOL.
Does anyone have a pattern for rustic furniture? Like made of logs or country look. Couch ( sofa, davenport) and chair. I need one for one of the houses. Then I need to buy or print out some country style material. I'll have to look at the fabric store and see what I can find.
Back to work tomorrow so I am anxious to get back outside to work on the contest building. I don't get much done on the days I work. ut we do what we must do to live and pay the bills.
Well off I go to cut some more siding. Hugs, Teresa

20 yards of mulch later and other thoughts

My husband and I bought 20 yards of mulch for all of our gardens (flower) and still came up a little short! (I wonder how many wheel barrow loads we each did???) We did create a new bed so that one took alot of mulch. We have 3 narrow beds that can still use mulch, but that will be next year probably. He worked on it when I was at work on thurs and saturday morning while I was asleep. But I helped all sat. afternoon and evening. Everything looks so nice now. I slept late on sat. morning because of some issues at work and couldn't sleep well the two nights before.  I did talk to my supervisor and hopefully some of the issues will be taken care of. I hate when things build up like that and you really feel like not going in. If nothing else I got some things said that needed to be said. It is hard for me to complain, but sometimes you just have to. Especially when it comes to our moral. Funny how a couple of people can make it hard for others. At this point I wasn't the only one to go to him about them. Alot of my co-workers did also. But life goes on and we survive it.
We had a snow storm friday! It was very hard to see when driving home. It stuck to the grass, but was mostly gone by mid morning. The mulch got covered but the inner layers stayed dry so it wasn't a big deal. It was a very pretty snow. Large fluffy flakes. Almost felt more like December. But it can stay away now! LOL.
I hope everyone had a great mothers day. We went to my mom's on saturday night. We bought her some solar lights for around her garden and patio. She was happy with them.  At almost 81 it is hard to figure out what to get her as she is trying to down size. But I know she had mentioned wanting some solar lights.

One of our gardens from last year.

Have a great day, hugs, Teresa