Tuesday Blooms ~ April 29, 2008

First blooms awaken


I love the symphony of this bed, such color and movement, and the fragrant flowers draw the bees and butterflies -- it's quite a beautiful stage for non-stop enjoyment!



First blooms of a tomato plant -- planted just six days before!
We'll watch these to assure the tomatoes don't grow faster than the plant can sustain them.


Garden View: taken Sunday before we thinned out some of the plants started from seeds.

Garden Sprouts

In less than a week, the garden has really taken off. The following items planted from seed on Sunday, April 20, have already broken ground: pumpkins, cucumbers, radishes, and green beans!

When planting from seed, it's important to transplant the baby seedlings in order to grow a healthy size veggie; failure to do so will result in stunted growth! The photos snapped below were taken before we got our hands dirty with the transplanting!


Cucumbers!


Pumpkins!


Radishes!


Since we created a raised bed planter, we added steps from one course of cinder blocks, filling the cores of each with dirt topped off by gravel. For decorative ambience, we added to stained glass stepping stones with garden themes that we had. Since the space leading into the garden was very small, we removed the grass adding in the pea gravel -- don't you just love to hear the crunch of pea gravel when you walk on it!



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Pretty in Pink: Scenes from my very own Landscape Bliss™

As I walked around enjoying the beauty of our blooming landscape today, I noticed a recurring, unintentional theme of pink. I decided to photograph a few to highlight the beauty and variety of pink at our place. It was fun, so I think I will dedicate more days to "the color" in my landscape!

Bright pink Impatiens nestled among Purple Queen. The Purple Queens shows signs of the recent hail damage.


A soft pink rose


Carnation pink roses grow along our rear-entry driveway; their color reminds me of the Crayola brand crayon color Carnation Pink


The colors of this rose, the soft pinks, yellow, and orange hues remind me of a sunrise.


The pink bloom of the Purple Queen is a beautiful and delicate accent to such a hardy plant!


If you enjoy talking dirt, reading helpful tips, and checking out great landscape design photos, check out LandscapeBliss.com!



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Earth Day - Add a Little Green to Your Life!

Earth Day - Add a Little Green to Your Life!

Earth Day began April 22, 1970 and is now a global celebration to remind us to take care of our precious planet.

We know everyone can't go green overnight, so at LandscapeBliss.com, we offer simple tips to incorporate into our everyday lives. The following photos are just a few of my millions of reasons to make a change or two to make our world more environmentally-friendly! What are the things important to you?

Following the photos is an article with great tips for adding a little Green to your life.

Crystal Lake Reservoir, near Pike's Peak in Colorado


A fawn in the wild, Divide, Colorado


The view from Pike's Peak, Colorado


Spring Tulips at the Dallas Arboretum


Canopy-lined Path at the Dallas Arboretum


The Caribbean - Puerto Rico!


Delicate beauty!

In Bloom This Week!

The pansies are still beautifully in bloom. I love looking closely at the gorgeous design of God's creation, the texture and colors are simply amazing.


The roses have begun to bloom, but they are about to burst forth in full glory.


I can't seem to capture the true color or size of the roses in these photos. The red roses are quite fragrant and they are huge in size!


Gerber Daisies and Purple Queen provide a decorative accent to this tree ring out back!


For more tips and articles on going-green, gardening, and landscape design, join us at www.LandscapeBliss.com!

The Making of a Home Garden

For our veggie garden, we chose to use a side yard that receives little traffic and 8-10 hours of sunlight.


We dug up the yard one shovel at a time to remove the grass. It was quite a workout and took a couple of days; our black gumbo soil is akin to hardened concrete!


Not shown, we brought in a tiller and added mushroom composts and leaves saved from last fall.


After weighing the options of various garden restraint materials, we chose to build ours out of concrete cinder blocks. We partially buried the first course, using a tamp to level the ground.


To add stabilization for soil shifting, we drove stakes into the ground; the stakes are shown here placed, but not yet driven into the ground.


Our garden is just over 100sf, so we brought in six yards of soil enriched for vegetable gardens; compare this new soil to the amended soil above -- not much comparison! Maggie kept watch over the soil while we worked!


Hauling soil in.


Spreading soil throughout.


Dave and I drew up a plan for placing each veggie group; when it came time to plant, he dug all his holes first, then planted and I started by placing my plants and then digging each hole. Both methods worked fine, I just thought the contrast in style was fun and picture-worthy to note ... :-)


I loved the peat pot containers these veggies came in; simply cut the bottom off and plant without the added waste of a plastic container. Tomato plants should be planted with soil covering about 80% of the plant to help them establish a strong root system.


After planting seeds and plants, we gave each a good drink of water with fertilizer, then gave them a final drink We added the marigolds to help ward off pests (like Nematodes and Whiteflies) and the petunias, lantana, and purple queen for their pollination attributes.


We still have a few tweaks to complete the garden -- more to come!

For more tips and articles on going-green, gardening, and landscape design, join us at www.LandscapeBliss.com!

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Spring Awakens at our Place!

We worked hard this past weekend creating a raised bed veggie garden from a part of our yard that was formerly a basically unused grassed side yard. I'll share more about that project in a future blog.

But wow!
Being outdoors after such a stormy week was just awesome! And it was exciting to see how Spring is awakening all around our home. Here are a few photos of what we have going on at our place!

The rose bushes are heavy with blooms, but this is the first one to appear in all her glory!

I love Gerber Daisies because they are so easy to grow, deliver such flowering beauty, and are perennials, which is great for building a great landscape design on a budget! We have them
planted in several beds throughout our property and they bloom almost year around here in Zone 8.

While I was looking through the camera viewfinder to get my Gerber Daisy shot, I was awed when a butterfly landed right in front of me and began sampling the delicacy of the Pincushion flower next to the Daisy! I also have added a lot of the Pincushion flowers to our landscape as they do indeed attract butterflies!

I enjoy Hawthorn shrubs year around, but in the Springtime, they add incredible beauty and drive-up appeal to our home's entryway!

I'm adding a new perennial, Kalanchoe , this year. I don't have any experience with this flower, so it's fun to try out something new!