Posts Tagged ‘Outdoors’

I’m so excited to see things blooming in my yard, and not just the daffodils.  My winter daphne has some cute pink flowers which smell divine.

Variegated Winter Daphne

Technically, this has been blooming since February, but it’s just now starting to smell great with the warmer weather.  I planted this along the lower gallery porch, so you get a nice whiff of it whenever you open the front door.

Next, my camellias are going gangbusters.  I have bright pops of red all round the garden because the people who owned the house prior to us apparently loved camellias.  We have them everywhere.

Camellia Japonica

As I was taking that picture, I startled a male cardinal, and he almost hit me in the face.  He blended so well with the flowers that I didn’t see him!  It’s definitely a good hiding place from that naughty hawk which likes to troll my yard for a snack.

My periwinkle ground cover is blooming too.  I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to look out the windows and see tiny purple flowers everywhere.

Periwinkle

Finally, I doubt that moss is exciting to anyone but me, but I have some growing in the cracks between the stones of my firepit patio.  I love the look of moss on stone.  Anyway, it’s “blooming” too!

Blooming Moss

C’mon moss!  Fill in all those cracks.  I know you can do it!

Now that Autumn has officially arrived, I’m doing the annual Fall maintenance and upgrades to my garden.  It’s been a rough year because of the drought, and we’ve lost a few plants because of it.  I had to replace those and install a thick new layer of mulch.  We also decided to add stone borders to the gravel paths.  We really wanted to do it when we installed the hardscaping two years ago, but bordering the gravel paths would’ve busted our budget.  We’ve spent the last two years being highly annoyed with mulch washing into the gravel and vice versa, so this year we went for the upgrade.

Garden Paths Before

Garden Paths After

As you can see in the photo, the leaves have just started falling.  I get to spend the next couple of months keeping them at bay.