Fertilizer Friday 4.26.13

Happy Friday! I am joining Tootsie today for Fertilizer Friday.

I will kick things off with a splash of color.....

I'm not sure what this is to be honest with you. I think it is some type of azalea??? I dunno. It is old. It has been here forever.

I have been making new flower beds. The Dirt Queen (aka my mom) and the Hydrangea Queen (aka my buddy) have been giving me lots of plants. I don't have enough beds made to plant them in yet....

A few irises, phlox, sage, salvia...all kinda goodies.

My wonderful just happens to like digging in the dirt also. So he helps out alot around the yard. I had a ton of zinnia and coneflower seeds left over from a few years ago. We tilled up this strip just so I could throw the seeds out and let them come up.

As you can see there are a lot more flowers in there than zinnias and coneflowers!!! Well, when I was making other flower beds, I sprayed the grass with some mega weed killer. Soooo....I couldn't plant these plants in those spots or they would have keeled over. This strip was the best spot to park them for now. They will get a new home later on in the year.

This is one of the beds I worked on. That gas tank...sigh...how ugly is that thing!!!! That's ok...I planted some phlox, bee balm and crocosmia around it. It will soon be covered up. I also planted several hydrangeas under the Japanese Magnolia.

It's not real pretty right now...but it will be.

The area in front of the shed will eventually be a huge flower bed. I have grand plans for this one. I also have grand plans for the ladder to make its way to the other side of the shed. Those chair cushions need a makeover too.

I eventually will expand this bed to include the area around and between the bird bath.

Sunday I painted the swing. It seemed like a good idea at the time. It was until I got to all those slats! Ugh!!! It does look a million times better though (and so does that cushion because I just recovered it!).

The ladder got a fresh coat of paint also...it was much easier to paint

This is a Seven Sisters Rose. I got it from my old neighbors. They had it covering a fence. It is absolutely gorgeous. For the past 3+ years I have had them in huge pots on a trellis. They weren't doing good at all. I CAREFULLY un-tangled them and planted them here on this arbor (which I probably also should have painted). They are doing great and I expect them to bloom in May.

I just kinda sat all this stuff here for now. I kinda like it.

Birds.....last week we had them.

Now we don't. This is Casper. Casper adopted us. She also like to eat Blue Buntings and Yellow finches!!!

We haven't seen many birds the past few days, or hummingbirds. I hope Casper doesn't run them off. We really enjoy sitting outside watching the birds. It's the little things in life....

I don't know what these two were doing.....

But I think this one was looking for Casper.

I think that we haven't seen any hummers lately due to the cooler temps. I dunno. I don't know that Casper could catch a hummingbird.....?

This is the one that was just feeding. It eats then rests.

This is his buddy. He rests....

...then eats.

I see them sitting in various trees. They don't seem to mind us. Hope they show back up soon!

We have a big field behind out house. We tilled up two big strips across it. In the first one I planted zinnia and coneflower seeds. In the second one I planted sunflowers. I think it will be REALLY pretty when they bloom. I have been lugging 300 ft of waterhose back there to water them until they take off. Dedication!

Have a great weekend! 

Feed Them and They Will Come

When I lived at my old house, I fed the birds all the time....and never had a one!!!!! I would go to my neighbors and they would have birds every where. I finally gave up and stopped wasting bird feed.

About 3 years ago I bought this bird feeder from a garden show. It has been in the box since then. We moved into our house last Spring, and I didn't do anything out in the yard since I was pregnant. Now I have the fever and am working on sprucing it up! Anyway, back to the bird feeder. My husband finally put it up a few weeks ago. We also put out 3 bird baths.

Out of no where......there were birds....lots of birds! Birds I had never seen before!!!

This place is like a bird sanctuary...its crazy. We have a big field behind our house, so I think they like that. We also have a huge live oak, and several pecan trees.

I'm not a bird expert, and I honestly don't know what some of the birds are, but I like them. I took these pictures last Sunday when it was raining. The birds didn't seem to mind

I do know that these are Indigo Blue Buntings and Yellow finches. This isn't the greatest picture....I had to sneak outside...and I got part of the house in the picture. That would be the big blurry thing on the right side....oops.

A yellow finch perched in the pecan tree.

The other day I had just finished making a new flower bed, and sat down. I always keep the camera outside with me, because you never know what may show up. I took these next set of pictures in about a 15 minute time frame.

Don't mind my gloves and towel in the picture. I laid them over the gas tank to let them dry out. They don't make for the prettiest picture. I wasn't really thinking about photo back drops when I put the bird bath there.

One of the yellow finches became a casualty to our cat, Casper. I haven't seen any of them since then. I don't know if they have migrated, or she just scared the stew out of them? The other birds don't seem to care about her.

We put out 6 hummingbirds feeders also. So far, no hummers have showed up. Our weather here has been pretty crazy lately, so that may have something to do with it. Hopefully they will show up soon.