Taking a walk around our home...

Good morning! Yesterday I hinted that maybe I would show you something in its entirety, so I decided to take you for a walk around our house. It occurred to me that I show you a lot of photos of individual flowers growing in our gardens, but never really show you the gardens themselves. The main reason for this is because this is actually only the fifth spring that we are working on them, so we are not yet chock full of plants. We spent the first few years concentrating on the "bones" of the plan, such as the beds, lawn, trees and shrubs, so the flowers are not all that much established yet.

In any case, here goes nothing (or something, depending on whether your cup is half empty or half full!).

As you pull into our driveway,

this is what you will see on the right...

...the garden continues up along the right

side of the property.

There are woods that separate us from

our neighbors' homes, 

so we have created our beds forward of

the wooded areas on the sides...

A walk along the side of the garage brings you

to the yard, and here you see the stone path

that takes you to the back deck and screen

porch.

Ahead you see a plum tree surrounded

by daylilies...

To the left of that path at the bottom of the deck is the shady

fountain garden, with mostly hostas, 

ferns, and hellebore...

I particularly love these waxy blue

hostas...

...which I am happy to report have blessed us with several

babies (on right side corner of photo)...

A view of the right corner of yard in rear.

A leaky bird bath was planted with lovely

white annuals, 

and Holly Compacta bushes

flank the stone path leading back there. 

Our gazing ball is barely visible on the left,

though not a lot is blooming in this section yet,

except for the weeds, that is...

This is the center of the back yard and view from the porch.

The herb garden is in middle on right,

and newly expanded daylily and iris garden under

plum tree towards left, 

with garden shed in back behind it. 

Behind the herb garden is another island 

planted with rose bushes, a crab apple tree, 

and a fig tree...

Another shot of garden shed and (weedy!)

stone path and bushes leading to it.

Our memory garden, in honor of those in our families who

have passed on, is to left of shed...

And another view of shed.

The front shows the snowball bush, 

planted with Vinca and Creeping Jenny,

and a host of whatever else will grow there.

Heading left through the yard on our walk,

we pass the left, rear corner of house and get

to the rose-covered arbor...

...and walking through it takes us to the 

other side of the house...

...and looking over our shoulders after we pass under the arbor

this is the view back to the shed...

Looking ahead we see the gazebo,

the gardens around it still being established...

...and then we come up to the front of the house, 

having made almost a full circle...

How about some sweet tea on the porch?

As ever, thanks for putting up with my ramblings!!

Have a wonderful day.

A wheelbarrow full of daylilies and a smattering of fabric collage...

Hello friends! I hope that you had a great Mother's Day Weekend. Mine was very nice.

We live in a restricted subdivision, and Mr. Perch is on the Homeowners' Association Board. Saturday he and his group spent a good portion of the day digging out two established crepe myrtle trees and moving them to another location near our ball field. They had also planned on moving some old daylilies, but after finishing with the trees they decided that the daylilies were not worth the work, and wouldn't be properly cared for anyway, so our HOA President said that my neighbor and I could split them (her hubby is also on The Board). Needless to say, we jumped on this opportunity! Free plants are always a perk for me!

So, here is our wheelbarrow filled with the

daylilies.

How many plants do you think are in here?

Would you believe only three?

They were rather large lovelies!

Large though they are, 

I will not split them this year...

I planted them down by the gazebo,

and after that, I took a walk around the yard

to see what else was blooming. 

I love this time of the year because each

day brings an ever-changing show.

There was a lovely peony

( I think it is a Bowl of Beauty)....

...a Firebreather Bearded Iris.

This is the first year this one bloomed,

and it was from a lowly Walmart root...

These are the little pink roses that grow on

our arbor. 

They are so pungent that you can pick up

their sweet scent wherever you walk in

the yard...

This is a peony that I put in last year when I started developing

the gardens flanking the path to the gazebo. 

Only one bloom this spring, but I was awestruck 

by the faint coloring on this little pretty...

And this one is also sweet. 

It is a White Wings Peony...

And any worthwhile photographer would

be ashamed to show you the photo

 of  the Knockout Rose

pictured below.

The lighting on this one is way off,

but I think it's got its own charm...

And, really, I am STILL trying to complete

my fabric collage projects sometime before 

I'm too feeble to make it to the sewing machine.

Stand by on this one!

Bits and pieces of my gardens.

Bits and pieces of my art. 

My, wouldn't it be lovely to see something from me in its entirety? Maybe next time, my friends.

Have a great evening!!

Let's hear it for mothers!

Happy Mother's Day to you

and to all of the special women

in your lives!

I bought this trade card a few months ago and had hoped to incorporate it into a piece of fabric art, but haven't had the time yet. Feel free to copy and save it and use it as you wish. 

I hope that you have a great day!!

Garden whimsy...

Good morning friends!

This past weekend Mr. Perch and I put down about 40 bales of pine straw in front of the house. This is not a charming task, but someone's gotta do it to keep down the weeds on the large slope on which our house sits. It's also a job better done now than once the heat of the summer kicks in.

We have that slope, which I've shown you in previous posts, planted with a lot of shrubs and several Juniper, which will hopefully someday fill in and eliminate the need for much pine straw. (It's getting better each year as the layers build, though!) We noticed that one of the Junipers had died over the winter, so when we visited our plant nursery last week to get a replacement, we noticed a beautiful piece of garden statuary there. We ended up deciding that we would put it in place of the deceased Juniper, and offer a little whimsy to the entrance of our driveway. We put some colorful annuals around it, and hopefully they will fill in nicely as the summer moves in.

You can't tell from this photo,

but he is a pretty good size...

Don't you just love those buggy eyes?!

I'll share some better photos on a future post, so that you can get "the big picture", if you catch my drift!

I hope that you have a whimsical day yourselves!

Flowers: Pinks, Purples, Blues and Whites

Hello there!

This morning I decided to take my camera outside and take a few photos of some of what's blooming around this humble homestead. It seemed like a good day to play with the camera since it wasn't too bright and I knew that shadows wouldn't be an issue. When it comes to photography, I need all the help I can get!

Though we have a lot of different colors in our gardens, my personal favorites happen to be those that are pink, purple, blue and white, so here is a sampling of that.

Blue Iris that grows tall by the side of our

porch next to the driveway...

...almost halfway up the railings...

...another blue Iris that grows in the garden...

...and beautiful chive blossoms in the herb

garden. 

These come back year after 

year...

Annual Soprano Purple Osteospermum

that I buy each year for all-summer color.

This year they are in the window boxes 

on our porch...

In the welcome basket by our entrance

grows Vinca (transplanted from in

front of the garden shed, where they 

run wild), with gentle Lobelia, one of my

favorites...

And the mailbox plantings also come back each 

year, Clematis and more Vinca...

Of course, I can't forget white geraniums

on the front porch. There is something so

simply beautiful about these favorites,

which I also buy every year. 

Sitting on the old black chair...

And photographed up close...

...they are just standouts in my book...

I hope you are letting some flowers into your lives today! Thanks for visiting me.