garden!

Although I curse in my head as sweat rolls down my neck, I enjoy planting things and watching them grow. The point of this blog is to keep track of my gardening experiments and to be a place I can post/keep track of things that interest me about gardening.

We purchased our first house on December 21, 2006, so I now have my own soil to till. Spring has arrived and I want to start planting things. However, my gardening and botanical knowledge is sparse. This blog will include photos of my garden(s) as well as ideas of what I would like to create.

Things are starting to bloom and I'm slowly accumulating knowledge about what types of plants we already have. Like most homes in the south, there are azalea bushes and crepe myrtles in the front. There is also a pink camellia bush that began flowering by late February and another bush with pink flowers that I don't have a clue about. Just last week, the wisteria vines and yellow forsythia began blooming in the backyard. A dogwood tree is in full bloom in the front yard and by the summer, the huge magnolia tree in our front yard will be filled with blooms.

My first idea is to plant climbing plants along the north-facing wall of my house. I ordered several plants online from Autumn Ridge Nursery, based in Tennessee. I'm not sure how I feel about ordering online. I did it for selection. I purchased 4 climbing roses, 4 trumpet vines and 2 clematis as well as some other plants. I also plan to create a new mailbox garden, as there are some ugly plants there now with no character.

The residents prior to us created a large square garden with 4 smaller squares inside it. I'm uncertain how I feel about it. Because I have other priorities, I am sticking with that layout this year. I already planted a blueberry and a blackberry bush in one of the squares.