Living Plants, they’re really alive!

I know, you’re shocked.  I have managed to keep some plants alive! Even with this black thumb thing I have going on.

Now, let me tell you about these easy/almost no maintenance plants. When summer came around (yes summer, this post has waiting to be written for too long) I thought it would be nice to bring some color to our back yard.  I thought about getting some flowers and putting them in the gardens in the back, but Justin was currently working on those gardens.  So, I thought my best bet would be to get some pots and fill them with flowers instead.

Once I was set on potted plants, I picked up two large pots at Lowes.  Also, I picked up some potting soil. Once I got home, I just plopped the soil right into the pots. Like so…

While at Lowes, I also grabbed some flowers…

Aren’t they pretty?  From there, I figured out an arrangement for the flowers that I liked.  It wasn’t too complicated, considering both pots got the same exact flowers.

I then popped them all out of the containers they came in, and planted them right into my new bigger pots, adding more soil as I went.

I love them, we needed some color out back and I think this is a start.

While I was doing my planting flowers thing, Justin was hard at work making new gardens and re-mulching.  He’s such an overachiever.

Before I explain this new garden bed, I figured I should show you what this part of the yard used to look like.  The photo below is last year, right after we had irrigation installed and our yard re-sodded.

Even after the irrigation was installed, we still have some water hanging out in this corner from time to time.  Justin figured we should just add a garden bed, that way we don’t have to deal with this muddy corner.

As you can see, the grass was still coming back to life at this point, also Justin had just aerated the yard.

He planted 6 podocarpus plants…

And two small bottle brush trees…

While he was at it, he decided to re-mulch all of the garden beds in the back to match the new brown mulch we had used in the front.  Here is what our gardens were looking like post winter…

Not looking so hot (once again, please don’t judge our poor grass, it was having a rough time coming back after winter).

Here are things after Justin mulched…

See how the grass is coming back now?  Woot woot!

And here is where my new planters live…

Oh ya, while I was at it I planted these little succulents.  They hang out in the patio.These guys are so easy to take care of, they require very little water and lots of light.  I think even I can manage to keep them alive, fingers crossed.

And just because Justin likes to make me look bad, he also planted a new garden in the front on the side of the house…

 

I’ll leave you with what our front is looking like nowadays…

Thanks for checking out this super late post!

Plants Plants Plants

Apparently I can’t get enough plants for our home, or maybe it’s the fact that I kill so many of them.  Either way we have some new additions to the clan.

It all started with this guy….

Justin’s grandmother gave me this plant for Easter and it is actually doing great.  It has gotten a lot bigger since coming to live at our house and I really like it.  It is a mandevilla, it is a viney plant that grows pretty pink flowers.  Only problem is that it has out grown it’s little trellis that it came with.  It was now reaching for anything else to grow on, including itself.  All of the vines were wrapping around themselves.

Poor thing, see all of the vines twisting around themselves on the left side of this photo?  It was doing that everywhere.  I did try to be a good plant mom and purchase a new trellis at walmart, but they did not have any.  They only had tomato cages…

So, I took one of those home and popped it around the mandevilla.  It seemed to help somewhat and it started to climb the plant cage, but soon it started to outgrow it’s pot and it was starting to tip to one side in the plant stand.  I knew it was time to plant it in the garden and give it a better home with a real trellis, not an imposter tomato cage.  I removed the tomato cage and look how sad the plant then looked…

My plants always look so sad, I am really trying here though people!

I also ran to Lowes and picked up a new larger trellis…

Look at that beauty, I think my little mandevilla plant will be very happy.   I also picked up a bag of top soil and another bag of red mulch.  I then dug a decent whole for the new trellis and the plant.

As I went, I pulled up all the weeds that were pooping through the mulch and any rocks that I came across.

I swear we will never be rid of all of these asphalt rocks that the previous owner had in the garden.

Next I plopped the trellis in the newly dug whole…

Next in went the plant.

I surrounded the plant with top soil and then recovered the hole with any remaining dirt that I had dug up.

Still looking oh so sad.  I am really mentally willing the poor little plant to turn around and realize it has an awesome new tall trellis.

I then added the new mulch…

There she is all planted safely in the ground, hope she does well here.

Since I moved the mandevilla to the garden I now had an empty plant stand.  I felt compelled to fill it, so while at Lowes I picked up a hibiscus plant, they are so beautiful.

It’s orange and pink, I mean come on, tell me that’s not pretty!

Fits perfectly next to our front door.

One more…

Zack decided to hop in this one.

And here is our front yard with the new additions…

Lovely.

I wasn’t quite done there though.  I also picked up a new hanging plant for the backyard since I have managed to kill all three of the petunia hanging baskets.

It is a purslane hanging basket, apparently it blooms for summer and fall.

I love all of my plants and I am hoping I am getting better at taking care of them, wish me luck!