Working in the garden

We spent last night and part of today in at Ian's parent's house to celebrate Mother's Day and Ian's mom's birthday. We went out for dinner last night and had a lovely, if huge, meal and then this morning we ate a very delicious baked spiced apple pancake thing. The rest of the time we hung out and watched tv, just enjoying each other's company. Ian's dad stole Gozer again, of course, but since she loves spending time with him, I figure it was as good a weekend for her as it was for us.

Ian's mom gave me some more seedlings to plant in our garden. She gave us a total of 54 impatiens plants - half shorter ones that will cascade over rock and half taller ones - that we planted in our front garden. Somehow we found room for all of them! Next year we hope to put in a flower bed on the other side of the path in the front yard but we can't do that this year so having the impatiens in the main bed will add some colour to the front yard.

She also gave us a whole bunch of plants that will attract hummingbirds. I put some of them - red salvias - up at the top of the waterfall and planted another type of plant in a pot for the patio. She also gave us some climbing plants that we planted on the kitchen side of the house where we get the morning sun. Hopefully they'll do well there and add some colour.

Ian's mom also gave us some vines for the gates on the side of the property. I love the way they look on her gate and I've been wanting the plants on our gates to add some interest and softness to ours. The fact that they'll add a bit of a visual barrier just adds to their appeal :) I'll be planting those in the next couple of days.

I've been looking at the lupin in the lower bed. It's got some aphids and it's not doing nearly as well as the lupin up by the waterfall. I've been thinking that I'd like to pull it out and put something else in there because it just doesn't get quite enough sun to thrive in that spot. I'll give that lupin one more season and if it's destroyed by aphids, out it comes.

Having such a huge garden is a lot of work but I'm finding that I love the work. I find it very satisfying to take care of the garden and to add more colour and variety to the different planting beds. I'm very excited to see how everything looks when it all takes hold and really starts growing.