The fun begins this weekend~!

Busy day today...

The fun has started ~ by fun, I mean the planting. I love to garden and I love invasive, native desert flowers.

We got the front planter finished, finally. We poured the cement ledger/barrier late yesterday afternoon along the house and the man-child pulled the forms this morning and started filling it with dirt when Mooch ratted him out and woke me up to tell me...

It's amazing how things around here can go from clean, to a cluster in a matter of minutes, but I guess that's how old house renovation works...?

Yes, my beautiful new patio is under that tarp and under that OSB board. At least they were mindful enough not to get cement on the new patio...

In the back corner is a 50+ year old peony. I'm so happy it survived. You know how those buggers are though, once they're established, they hate to be moved at all. So, we carefully blocked it out with some pavers, so it remains at prior ground level and the rest of the flower bed gets raised with imported dirt from the back yard...

I think it's a 'white' peony, but I"m not positive?

Of course I needed an old birdhouse...

Thanks to some great friends that moved and let me raide their yard, I have a whole collection~!

I decided to only put one in the front of the house.

I didn't want to use all of my toys in one flower bed...

I bought African Shrub Daisy's for the sides of the front door. I liked that they were sort of drought tolerant and I like their large size...

(Even though I HATE annuals!)

Look, perfect place for my $5 yardsale barrel, there on the left of the door~!

To the right of the door is an old wire milk crate. And, versus dragging all the cut paver pieces to a junk pile across the road, I just used them for mulch around the door planters. And, to weigh them down and keep them from blowing over in the wind...

You know how Utah is ~ we have 3 seasons; "Wind", "July" and "Winter".

Just trying to plan according~!

And, one of my sweet "Summer Angels," my resident dove, watching everything happen. I had a pair at my house, one has a white foot. They lived in my chicken coop. When we moved the chicken coop, they showed up at this house (the one with the white foot) and they're living in the old chicken coop...

I think my Dove pair like me. Of course, maybe they just like the chicken feed...?

Have you ever watched a dove take off straight up into the air? They look like angels fluttering up into the sky, hence the name "Summer Angels."

If anybody ever trys to harm them, I'll shoot back. I love doves. I wake up every morning to their 'cooing' outside the bedroom window. When I'm outside, they follow me around the property. They're beautiful creatures. I love having them here. We have alot of doves in this area, but she's the only one with a white foot I've seen...

The way the sun sits in the sky here in summer makes it IMPOSSIBLE for me to get a picture without shadows. And, I'm just not patient enough to care. I was busy and in a hurry to get some flowers planted!

An old axle and wheel, an old oil can and a rusty tractor seat

were placed strategically to take up some space...

I found this old, metal box over in a junk pile. I've got my eye on it. I was fearful of just "dumping it out," not knowing what was in it, but soon, it will be an addition to the yard, with the man-childs approval of course.

And, I've passed by this old barrel dozens of times and never noticed~!

I figure I'll drag it over to the house soon also...

(There's just so much old junk around here, it's hard to take note of...)

Perennials are planted...

One flower bed complete~!

250 more to go (you just never know...)

There are purple cone flowers, penstemons, chocolate flowers, wisteria, various herbs like spearmint and sage and roses...

See, clean to a cluster in no time at all ~ lol

Final step... A thick, hay mulch on top because there is always an abundance of old, moldy hay around...I've been mulching my flower beds and vegetable gardens with old, moldy hay for years and its never affected any plants. In fact, for being in the desert, my gardens do WONDERFUL~!

(Ssshhh... don't tell my secret...)

Mulch is the greatest thing you can do for your gardens. My flowers grow abundantly and get huge. If I don't mulch, I'm a slave to my yard and well, I'm a lazy gardner... <wink>

Besides, who likes to weed an established garden bed?

I don't, so I just pick up a leaf of hay and throw it over the weeds and that's my idea of weeding~!

There are wisteria vines in the corners. I'm hoping they will eventually take over the front of the house...

I planted a climbing rose close to the front door in hopes of eventually training it up over the front door and under the front eave...

And look~

You still can't get in my formal front door~!

(Just use the kitchen door still, please...)

I feel accomplished once again ~ thrilled to have some flowers in the ground...

Still have more to put in over the weekend, but that's where the fun is.

One step at a time...

It's hard work, but nothing easy is ever worth it~!