Lilacs

It's always nice to get out in the garden again after a long winter. Things seem to be blooming and gone before I even get a chance to get any drawings or paintings of them. I've already missed the viola's, tulips, and daffodils and the lilacs and yellow geraniums are getting away from me as well.

While they've been blooming away I've been dividing and potting up extra lily of the valley plants.

My plan is to sell off some of the extra plants to hire some help in the garden to reach and do the things that I can't anymore.

My husband hiked out into the yard and took these photos of the lilacs in the front yard. The back yard is so overgrown that the only hope of photos of those lilacs would be by drone.

There are now lilacs growing in 6 different locations that all began with the purchase of 3 bushes in the 1990's. 1 regular bush on clearance from the local Wal-mart and 2 pinks from a garden catalog.

I have great plans for them once I can arrange to have some digging, dividing and transplanting done.

I'm looking forward to it!

Here's a card I made that includes an old photo of the garden that included some lilacs and a drawing done just yesterday. The amazing thing about the old photo is that you can no longer see that driveway or the neighbors houses through a mixed grouping of spirea, lilac and rosebushes. i was so pleased to see the progress. there's also a butterfly garden there.

It's shaggy and unkempt but the butterflies love it that way.

Getting Started in the Container Garden

I started out with a tomato and some flowers here.

One of the things that I start with is touching up the paint on the patio furniture. These days I have to use spray paint to reach everything but I would love to find a more environmentally friendly alternative to get the job done.

Here I've set one of the seating areas up for a tea with friends.

 We also took an old arched bench apart and will be attaching the Arch to the old chain link fence so that we can cover them both with the roses from the other side of the yard.

This is my rolling garden that includes herbs, flowers and vegetables. A few of the things here are lettuce, radishes, carrots, green onions, turnips, spinach, marigolds, poppies, daisies. Too many to mention here.

Here are some lily of the valley plants that I divided to share or save for a new flower bed.

The large Brown pots have a raspberry bush, beans, petunias, marigolds, a tomato and an assortment of other things in them.

Here's a long shot of the area that holds my container garden and three different seating areas.

This area is where we have morning coffee. these pots were just here the day I was dividing lily of the valley plants. They're out of the way now.