Pre-birthday post

Have I mentioned it's my birthday soon? I know. I'm totally shameless! It's the only-child gene. I can't help it!

Yesterday before I did the job from HELL, I actually did up some pretties for my back stoop. I knew I would be in no shape to do any gardening today after the big job I had to do. It would not have been so bad except for the fact that the person who hired me to make their back yard pretty? They dug the holes for all the plants and apparently thought I was planning to put in giant redwoods. Holy HUGE holes! Maybe they wanted to get a peek at China? Maybe they wanted to bury their old Volkswagen bus? Or an elephant?

I'm sure you get my drift. In any case, I had to go out and buy another 12 huge bags of soil to fill in those ridiculous holes. So, on top of lugging about 6 good-sized arborvitae, 11 large hostas, 3 boxwoods and 3 huge grasses? I also had to put down 12 bags of peastone and then literally lug around a grand total of 18 big bags of soil.

To say the very leastest, I'm SO sore. And I slept like death. I always forget how well I sleep after doing these big gardening projects! Bonus!

Ok. So enough complaining. I did up some planters for our back stoop and also did up our neighbor's planter last week. We all share a driveway and she usually wants plants in the same color range that we have, so it looks very nice back there! Here they are...The first one is a grouping of three planters:

And this is on the other side of our stoop:

And this is our neighbor's planter I did (I love that little bunny!)


Here in my driveway is a shasta daisy and peony waiting to go into a client's yard this coming week. Also my HUGE lettuces!Those peonies smell divine. And isn't it nice I get to enjoy the pretty plants that go into my clients' yards before they get planted? I always have some sort of plants or flowers in my driveway!

And here is the planter I did up in March that was on our back stoop until yesterday. I moved it into the back yard to see what develops with the curly willow and those ENORMOUS arugula blooms - they're the ones in back - tall tall tall with white flowers. Crazy!

Lastly, here is the new Deutzia I got the other day with the lime green foliage and white, delicate flowers. Next to it is one of the mystery peonies I picked up about a month ago at the garden center. It had no tags, so I had no idea what color I ended up with - it's a white one! One of the flowers is there on the ground now.

Ok. That's all that is going on over here! Happy long weekend! Happy birthday to me!

All is good over here

Our dog, Sadie is the most amazing little girl you could imagine! She is healing at a pace that is nothing short of miraculous. Her belly has 40 staples in it, but they look to be completely obsolete at this point...Her wound is barely even visible now that she's healed up. The staples come out on Tuesday next week, so that's the last part of the puzzle. Relief does not even begin to describe the feeling we have knowing that she is going to be completely well after this whole ordeal!

Here she is today:Alert and VERY happy!

Yesterday, as well, our other dog, Koty, got his summer haircut. He looks like a giant 6 month old puppy!


Now, despite all of the dog drama that has been going on here, I've managed to do a TON of gardening jobs. I'll take photos of them soon...And, of course, I've been at my most favorite place, Marblehead Garden Center, three times this week to buy the annuals and perennials I've needed for the jobs I've been doing. We all know what that means...Here's me:

"Ok. Two of those, three of those and OHHH! Look at that! Those angelonia are SO pretty. I'll buy a couple for my planters. Well....Maybe a few more because there are those blank spots in the side yard. And, there is that big pot in the back yard, too, that I could fill..."

"Laaaa leeeeeee laa laaaaa! Boy, I love it here. Ohhhh smell THOSE! I'll just get one of them. Or three."

"LOOOOOOOOKY! A Deutzia! SOOOO pretty. Look at that lime green foliage! And those GORgeous white flowers! I know exACTly where to put that in the back yard!"

I'm an addict. I simply cannot help myself when I'm at the garden center. It's really beginning to be a problem!

So, here's what's happening in the back yard right now...My pretty false indigo bloomed!
SO pretty!

And here's that Deutzia bush that I found! I really needed it. My birthday is Sunday, okay? Jeez.

And here is the sweet basil that finally has a proper home for the summer. It smells SO fantastic!

Today I have a big garden installation to do and then I'll also do up some of my summer planters with the umpteen annuals I HAD to have when I was shopping yesterday. I'll take pictures and post them tomorrow.

Hope you all have a fabulous long weekend. Don't forget to wish me a happy birthday Sunday...Isn't it nice that the government gives everyone a long weekend to celebrate my birthday? Thanks, America!! hee hee!

The Best News!

Sadie is doing well...We just found out that the tumor they removed on Thursday was completely benign! Best outcome possible!

We are utterly thrilled and are so very glad that this is behind us and that our sweet little Sadie will be fine!

Our little bookends have many years to come!!
Where does one start and the other one end?

Anyway, this was the best early birthday present I could have ever imagined (5 days away). So, many thanks to everyone who sent a good thought our direction. We feel very, very lucky and very thankful that there was such a great outcome for our little family!

Fleurs and herbs

Well, the back yard is just exploding with new growth and the promise of flowers! I swear in the past week everything has almost doubled in size!

Here is my "small" butterfly bush! It's getting huge like its gi-normous yard-mate on the other side of the back yard!
This is a little wind chime that I hung on one of the branches I cut off this spring. Cute, no?

Here's Mongo the butterfly bush!It just keeps getting taller and taller. I had to climb the stairs that lead up to our deck to the right of this thing to trim off some dead branches yesterday! Soon, I'm going to need one of those trucks with the elevated buckets like the utility company people use!

And very exciting, indeed; my hydrangeas are starting to have a million blooms on them! Look at this one little spot - it has six blooms coming!

The false indigo is also starting to flower. You can just start to see purple coming:


I decided to plant a grape tomato plant here amongst the fleurs:

And here's a closeup of that pretty basil plant I bought last week. Yumm. Eating it on top of buffalo mozzarella as we speak!