Wordless Wednesday

Revamp of a overgrown bed with mulch, new plants and a wood border.

Garden Project keeping me busy…

I know I’ve been MIA from the garden blogasphere for several months.  But recently we’ve been very busy with spring tasks and projects.  So even though I’ve been neglecting my blog for some time I’ve been giving alot of attention to the garden. 🙂  Here is one of the major projects that my entire family has been helping me with over the past couple of weeks.  Plus I am more active on Facebook, the link to my page is in the right sidebar.  Stop on by and say hello.  I’ve joined a couple of garden groups on there.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend in or out of the garden!

Fall Chores

Here’s some things I really need to get accomplished this month before the cold hand of winter touches down:

• Plant Daffodil bulbs and replace summer annuals with Pansies (done)
• Rake leaves as they fall into the beds as a winter mulch
• Put some of the leaves into my compost bins
• Finish cleaning out veggie beds (done)
• Store the garden decor in shed
• Turn over birdbaths (done) & remove pumps from fountains
• Scatter more grass seed in lawn
• Clean and store garden tools
• Put fresh mulch down in front beds
• Stock up on birdseed
• Cut back Peony foliage (done)

Once all this is done I’m going to enjoy getting some stuff done indoors for awhile and then before long I’ll be looking through garden magazines dreaming of next spring.  🙂

Fall Checklist Update

Chrysantheums in full glory 11/17/10

Well I’ve been working hard this past weekend completing some of the tasks I wanted to do before the end of the month.  Here’s what we (my son helped quite a bit) got done so far:

• Transplanted a Knockout Rose from my grandmother’s garden bed to my Rose Garden out front (after trimming it back severely)
• Cut back the other 3 Knockouts since they were really unruly.  This took 3 large yardbags! 
• Divided the  one large Phlox ‘Robert Poore’ in this bed into 4 smaller divisions which were planted between the Roses
• Moved a large clump of Purple Coneflowers into the raised garden bed (making 3 smaller clumps)
• Weeded both the Rose Garden and Raised Garden beds and cut back the dead foliage on some perennials
• Divided the Shasta Daisies in Grandma’s Garden bed into 5 smaller clumps that were spread around her bed and my New Garden bed
• Moved some purple Beebalm from my garden into her bed as well as some double daylillies
• Moved the Green Coneflowers into a sunnier spot behind the birdbath in the New Garden (in place of the Beebalm)
• Moved the Hydrangea ‘White Swan’ into the Green Coneflowers former shadier spot
• Planted some  ‘Hair’ Allium bulbs in the New Garden
• Sowed Larkspur, Rose Campion, False Queen Anne’s Lace and Nigella seeds in the Arbor Garden Bed
• Moved a hybrid Rose from the Knockout Rose Bed into the Raised bed

Here’s what I hope to still get done this month (if not than there’s always next spring):

• Replace landscape timbers that have rotted on the Raised Bed out front
• Move my compost bin that’s beside the Arbor Garden to the work area on the other side of my yard
• Make a new bed for the Vitex Tree (yep still in the pot) 😉
• Remove fountain pumps and store in the garage (this is a must)
• Make one more raised veggie bed

Fireplace Refacing

Before

My hubby took last week off and this is what we did for part of that time.  I’ve hated the plain red brick on my fireplace for the past 14 years.  So happy that it finally is updated with the tile (as you can see in the photo below).

After

Talk about a dramatic change! Even with the old mantle, which  really compliments the browns in the glass tiles that we added on the hearth and top.  So proud of  me & hubby’s first tiling project.   We did good.  🙂   (Click on any photo to enlarge it)