Green Thumb - Take Two

Remember Buster? Well he's gone ... and he's been gone for awhile now. I think I killed him about the same time we got Rooney. I know, it sounds like I quit taking care of the plant as soon as we got a kitten, but I learned that basil plants aren't really meant to last long. They're meant to be used for a season, but that's about it. (At least, that's what I'm telling myself.)

Either way, losing Buster meant one more tick on the "Non-Green Thumb" side of my "Can I garden?" chart. I was about ready to hang up my metaphorical gardening hat, but this weekend turned into unexpected adventure in the planting department. Allow me to explain ...

Jesse and I walk around our neighborhood a few times a week, and always admire the beautiful landscaping in our neighbor's yards. Our yard, on the other hand, was a little shabby looking and not so beautiful. We had some overgrown bushes, dead shrubs and daffodils that had bloomed, died and wilted. We kept complaining about how bad it looked, but I don't think it dawned on us right away that we could change it. Duh!

Side note: I would show you a picture of what it looked like, but after spending the last 30 minutes digging through my photo archives, I can't find a single picture of the yard. I guess you'll just have to use your imagination for this one. Imagine a hot mess of dead bushes and wilted daffodils - that's my front yard!

Anyway, yesterday evening, after returning from an overnight trip in central PA, Jesse asked if I wanted to go to Home Depot and pick out some plants. My first thought was, "No, I'd rather not waste the money on something I'll probably kill." But I knew that we really needed to cleanup our front yard, so off we went on our little gardening adventure. We spent about $50 and came home with a shovel, a bag of mulch, a bag of soil, one Japanese Euonymus, three packs of white impatients and two pots of brightly colored Celosia.

Jesse dug out the old bushes when we got home last night and tried to clear out some of the leaves. Here is what it looked like before I got started this morning.

I spent about 3 hours today cleaning out the leaves, tying back daffodils, laying soil and planting.

Before tying back daffodils

After tying up the daffodils

All tied up

And this is what everything looked like after I planted the shrub (Japanese Euonymus) and the Celosia.

I still have to plant the impatients, but I ran out of soil (as you can see in the picture above), so they'll have to wait until Jesse gets back from work. Oh, the joys of having one car! :)

BUT since I can't do anymore work out in the garden, I'm off to enjoy the pool!

I'll post the true 'After' pictures once we buy more soil and lay out the mulch.

Happy Memorial Day!