Fading Away

Have I mentioned how much I love my hydrangea bushes out back?  Come May, I can’t wait for the bright pink and purple blooms to burst open.  The best part is we can enjoy the blooms practically all summer long as they fade from bright pink to green to brown.  These lovely shades were just begging to come inside for an arrangement.

There aren’t many pink blooms left.  I love how they look combined with the ones that have already started to fade into green.

As I was cutting them, a couple stems got broken up close to the head and were too short to put in a regular vase.  So I stuck them in this little teacup!

Pretty darling if I do say so myself!

Simply the perfect flower!

Garden Party

How about a stroll through the garden to see how everything is growing?  First stop, a quick transformation.  I’ve had these purple glass candle holders hanging in my flower beds since our wedding six years ago, and they were looking a little worse for wear:

Spray paint to the rescue! Yep, I just spray painted right onto the glass.  I didn’t prime or anything since they would just be hanging in the garden and wouldn’t be getting handled much.

Next stop, my favorite of favorites, my lovely hydrangeas.  These lacecaps don’t last very long, but when they’re blooming they are so pretty.

The others are bursting with blooms.  I’m so glad the previous owner planted these in the backyard where I can enjoy them!

I’m experimenting with this bush, adding a little aluminum to the soil every year to get purple blooms:

I’ve gotten some interesting results this year….

I love hydrangeas because not only are they beautiful, but they are easy to care for.  I just have to make sure they get enough water every day.  Plus, the blooms last a long time and are perfect for vases inside.

My containers are growing nicely, too.  I love these yellow petunias I planted this year:

Potato vine, jasmine, geraniums, and my little strawberry pot with herbs are all chugging along:

Moving on to the front yard.  These bulbs are in the front garden, and I have no idea what they are.  The previous owner planted them, and they bloom more and more each year:

Anyone know what they are?  Firecracker something?

My daylilies are beginning to open up as well.  These are also great because of the low maintenance and beautiful variety.  I have peach, purple, yellow, orange, red, and maroon.

I bought this ornamental pepper plant a few weeks ago, I had to have it because of the cute little purple peppers!

Along the side of the house, the sunflowers I planted from seeds are growing but haven’t bloomed yet:

The canna lillies are more than making up for the sunflower’s shortcomings, though: I hope you enjoyed the tour! Gardening has been something I’ve really come to enjoy, although I am by no means an expert.  I just like to stick stuff in the ground and see if it will grow!

I’ll be linking up to Tuesday Garden Party, Outdoor Wednesday, Transformation Thursday, and the Garden Party at Southern Fried Dreams on Thursday.

The Last Blooms of Summer

This week, I’m hooked on my garden and joining Hooked on Houses for the weekly party. With the cooler temperatures this week, it’s beginning to feel almost like fall here in Louisiana.  But I’m not fooled, I know we have at least several more weeks of warm weather down here! I was enjoying the mild weather earlier this week and noticed a few of my plants were still hanging on to their summer blooms. 

This is the last of the pink blooms on the hydrangeas:

         The rest of the blooms look a little more fall-like:

My Hibiscus and Mexican Petunias are still blooming profusely:

And I’m happy to report that the two large Gardenia bushes that I transplanted from my friend’s yard are loving their new home and are also still blooming:

It’s been my goal all summer to get some good photos of the hummingbirds that visit the feeder and I finally got some good shots the other day.  These little fellas are still enjoying multiple doses of sugar-water daily:

It will be hard to say goodbye to these last blooms (and visitors) of summer, but I’m ready for cooler temperatures and fall decorating.  Oh, and football season of course!!!!

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I’ll be having a special promotion in my Etsy shop Saturday thru Monday.  In honor of Labor Day, the Knotties and Nesties Team (KNETTEAM) is having a Labor Of Love Sale.  Select items in my shop will be 10% off, plus get a free gift with every purchase!

Search for KNETTEAM on Etsy to find other lovely shops participating in the promotion.

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend, I’ll be spending mine with family.  Oh, yeah, and definitely watching some COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!

GEAUX TIGERS!!

Show Us Where You Live: Outdoors

This week Kelly is showcasing Garages and Yards in her weekly tour of homes. I’m so excited to participate, because I love to show off my garden, and I love to look at other peoples’ gardens!

We just have a carport, so there’s nothing exciting there, except for my hubby’s ‘65 Mustang:

This photo taken at our old house….where we had a garage…we miss you garage!

Anyway, on to more interesting things than some old car….

We’ll start in the front yard. The previous owner planted all of the daylilies and several of the other plants, we added the Louisiana irises and Butterfly irises (which I don’t have a photo of).

I call this one my Geaux Tigers Lily:

Hmmmm, seems that I don’t have any distance shots of the front flower bed, just close ups. And I’m too lazy to go take new ones. Most of these are from earlier this spring or last year.

Down the side of the house there are these gorgeous canna lilies that the previous owner also planted. I’ve clean up this bed every year and remove plants to give to friends and family, they multiply fast!

Moving on to the backyard……

I usually plant petunias in these baskets on the fence since they can handle the sun.

This is the butterfly bush in the middle of the flower bed:

And the Mexican Petunia:

This little Gardenia was a housewarming present from some of our best friends. I finally planted it in the front bed this year, it had been in a pot on the back porch for 3 years:

Are you tired of seeing flowers yet?? Just hang with me for a couple more pics. I have saved the best for last. My favorites. My babies. I present to you, my hydrangeas (I am so taking credit for these even though the previous owner planted them):

I put some aluminum in the soil of this one in order to get a lavender color:

I just love my hydrangeas! I love that I have enough to cut a few for a vase inside every now and then and I love to watch the colors change throughout the summer.

I have so many more photos of my flowers, I could probably dedicate a whole blog just to them! Even though maintaining flower beds is a lot of work, especially in the Louisiana heat, it it totally worth it because I enjoy them so much. I check almost every day to see if I have any new blooms! Now I’m off to look at everyone else’s outdoor spaces.