Welcome to my garden! The beginning -- 2007 forum: 2007 part 2
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So, I started shopping. My first purchase was my garden swing, I bought in the middle of June. $150.00(I think) from Walmart. It has been thru 2 hurricanes and 3 1/2 years later, I'm still enjoying it. Good purchase   And of course, I kept adding to Darions tree bed. I purchased a few coleus, but didn't really understand how much I would come to love them in the following year. They were still going strong in October. (last photo) JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST, I bought planters and flowers and white fences and edgers. Everywhere I went, I always checked out the planters and flowers. Garden center first, was my motto. I kept my eyes peeled for a deal. If a planter wasn't on sale, I didn't buy it. And if I came within a mile of a plant nursery, I just had to stop in.    At Lowes I found Blue Scaevola http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/246/ which does wonderful here in Central Louisiana. The hotter and sunnier it is, the better it grows. Also the Blue Plumbago http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/188001/ and lots and lots of Pentas. In the middle of August, I bought a bird bath (reduced at Walmart) I surrounded it with my Pink Plume flowers (Brazilian Plume, Jacobinia) http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/171561/ and yet more Pentas that I bought at Harb's Oasis. I love pink and white,    And then, as I do, I moved the plume flowers and pentas and planted Zinnias. (notes to self) I do not like orange at all, and edgers without grass around them get really dirty when it rains. In August I started buying little white fences at Lowes. Also, in August, I found Daves Garden website and joined. I soon found myself in the Mid South forum and I fell in love with the folks there. So many tips and encouragement and advice. They sent me cuttings and plants and it was wonderful. In September I bought more planters. and more annuals. I didn't realize that after the annuals died, my yard would be empty again. Lesson learned quickly the first year.    My first knockout rose bush planted along with another rose, name unknown. I enjoy the pink knockout, but it hasn't produced anything like the wonderful double knockouts I would purchase the next year. Third photo is my re potted (Brazilian Plume, Jacobinia). It has sat, unprotected for now 3 years and it still blooms faithfully every year. Speaking of little white fences. Once I started, I didn't stop.  I found that if I purchased a few (or more) a week, along with a few bags of soil and a few edgers, it didn't seem so expensive. Or at least, that was my reasoning at the time. :)   And I bought lots and lots of edgers (well, they are only a dollar each ) I found the joy of edgers filled with Miracle Grow, beat digging in my hard clay soil. But mercy, the bags of potting soil really add up after a while. I even got to where I would ask for "a bag of dirt", whenever my son or my husband wanted to know what I wanted for different occasions.  Little white fences and edgers. I just had a ball. I still didn't have any set plan, I just bought. But no matter what I did, the yard still looked barren.    It looked better, but still it was not what I had in mind. The grass just looked awful and sort of sparse. In October, my grandson's class had a field trip to New Orleans. On the way back (I drove my own vehicle), we stopped at Perino's Nursery. I saw the prettiest plants, so naturally, I bought some.       I got snapdragons, pansies, kale, petunias,salvia, and even some things I didn't know what they were. But then that meant that I would need more edgers and soil. I was a woman possessed. But I had the time of my life. I had experienced the wonderful feeling of my hands in soil and watching a little plant bloom. Oh, I was certainly hooked. So I began my little garden bed along the drive.    And, still trying to cover the backyard's ugly grass, I made another bed in the shape of a butterfly. What was I thinking?    But at the end of it all, it was still not what I wanted. In November, I met one of the gardeners from the MidSouth forum on DG. She lives about 40 miles from me. When I walked into her oasis, I knew what I was missing. Tropicals and lots of gravel and stone on the ground. She gave me several plants. And she told me about the LSU Ag center, where they grow many many test flowers and plants. I found myself wandering around their gardens for hours during the dreary months of December and January. These are some of the gingers and tropicals that where growing there in December 2007. I knew I had to have some of those. And sure enough, in 2008, I bought some.    They also had some of the most beautiful Camellia's you've ever seen. I purchased 2 Camellia's and they have never bloomed for me. But my neighbors are beautiful. I probably need to study up on them. In the mean time, they make nice evergreen bushes.    Also, in November, the rhyzomes that that another gardener from MS had sent to me, were beginning to come up.    ...................My very first Iris!......................................My very first canna's..................and to this day, I still don't know what these in the third photo are. They don't bloom or anything, but I love them. When everything else has no sign of life in the winter, these are growing beautifully. This is another beauty I received from her that first year. It was marked Crinum or I got the tags mixed up. Either way, I think is actually a Water Spider Lily, Carolina Spider Lily (Hymenocallis caroliniana) http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62064/ and I absolutely love it.    this was it in Nov 2007..............................This is it now in Nov 2010...................................This was it's bloom in June Some of my Christmas gifts for that year. Yes, you guessed it. Gloves, a garden stake, and 2 gift certificates to Clegg's nursery for $50.00 each.  That was the end of 2007. Come join me in 2008 http://cubits.org/GardeninginLouisiana/thread/view/43048/ |
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