How does your garden grow?

Yes, I'm still here.  No, I don't have any one/good explanation as to why I've not posted in so many months.  Yikes.  I have been waiting to share a few things till they're fully completed and wrapped with a shiny bow, and sometimes, things take longer than originally anticipated...and in the meantime, since we're busy working on these projects, I run out of time to tell you about anything else.

One of the things I've been wanting/meaning to share about is our flower beds and garden.  I tried to take pictures throughout the growing season of allll the things we planted.  Some of these continued to flourish well into fall, and then Thanksgiving and the holiday season hit...and for once, I didn't have the post started and ready to add finishing touches to once we had a hard freeze and things stopped growing...so...you get to read this in the dead of winter.  Maybe it was for the best, and this can serve as a reminder of the warmth and color that is to come.  Haha.

You might remember another post about these projects from a couple years ago.  Since everything was well-established this year, I thought I'd fill you in on how everything filled in!  ;)

Anyway, this will be mostly pictures along with some brief explanations.

We inherited iris from a few different people.

(This variety was one of my grandma's favorites.)

They didn't bloom last year, so it was fun to be surprised by what came out this year!

"Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?"

This sweet rose bush came with the house.

A neighbor gave us some "surprise" bulbs, so we were surprised by these daylilies!

Sweetspire

Our first bee balm blooms.

This stuff blew our minds...it covered probably twice as much ground by the end of the season.
PLEASE let us know if you want any starts - we have two patches this size!

These lilies were not a surprise.  ☺

We thought we'd lost the mums after they were confused by a couple unseasonably warm days in the dead of winter, but two of the three pulled through!

Our neighbors shared some hostas shortly after we moved in, and they've done so well!
I even used some of the leaves and blooms as decoration for a church women's event at the end of the summer.

Of course, I didn't get a picture of the full bed...mostly because things were in full bloom at different times (which was intentional), but you get this idea!  Now, for the garden:

Just a bunch of baby plants out there!

Our first harvest!
(We got maybe five more snap peas after this...)

My little helper, who had previously turned down cucumbers, appointed himself as "Quality Control" for the entirety of the season.  No argument here...this is one of the reason we planted a garden.  ☺

We probably should've counted the amazing number of cucumbers our five plants produced over the course of the very wet, not-too-hot spring/summer.  No, I never put up any pickles - we just gave a bunch away...and ate a lot.

Tomatoes were a welcome addition to our produce collection once they finally started turning!

We had no problems with deer this year, PTL!

Our one watermelon vine!

Pulled these off right before the first freeze.
There were MANY more on the vine, at one point - we'd taken several off early on and left a few on to chance the freeze.

Not too bad!

I think I've already told you about this little surprise petunia, but as a refresher:
I thought it was a weed, at one point.  It was a tiny little leaf of a plant growing among (obvious) weeds in my annual pot, and I almost pulled it in preparation for more annuals this year.  But...I decided to leave it, and I'm so glad I did!

It just kept on growing...

...and surviving...

...and blooming...

...all the way through the end of October!  I've never seen anything like it.  It was the best surprise!

There you have it.  Like I've said before, one of the purposes of this blog is to document pieces of my life for posterity's sake.  So, while I don't expect you to have been waiting on pins and needles to see how all our new plants fared, I do appreciate the interest (some of) you have in the less-exciting details of our life. ☺♥

Gardenly(?),
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

Baja Shrimp Tacos from Twisted Fresh

Favorite Things parties! 
And my favorite thing for the parties this year?  Handmade greeting cards! 
I made 8 sets of 10 over the course of several months to take to two different parties.

everything about this...but really, my husband
I snapped this picture a couple months ago.  It's what I came home to after a morning of playing on worship team at church...and after a night of being up with a sick kiddo (his/our first run-in with "throw up").  Not only did Bryant stay home to care for Jacob that morning while I was gone, but he also did the laundry, baked bread, and did all the dishes. ♥
This is just one shining example of how well he cares for us.

April showers bring...

Do I really need to finish it?

...

Ok - my OCD is kicking in.  

April showers bring...May flowers!

(Except, technically, the May showers had something to do with these flowers, too.)

Annnnyway...happy spring, everyone!  I hope this finds you well and your basement dry.

I've been waiting to share this project with you for quite a while:

My sweet husband helped me make a little flower bed in front of our house!  I was so excited about it, we had it done and ready to plant wellll before the last frost date, so I had to practice patience before putting anything green in it.  It was worth the wait, though!

Here are a few before/during/after pics for you:

This isn't actually where the bed went or is, but I didn't get a true "before" pic, so just picture the space looking like this, except with less green and more dead leaves...and stuff.

After clearing the space, we (yes, I helped) built a 3-sided wooden "box" to contain the fresh dirt we put in.

Then, I put in some landscaping fabric before planting some perennial starts from my mom (and 2 surprise lilies - one of my very favorite flowers - we found at a garage sale).

Next came a few boughten (thanks to spell check, I just realized "boughten" isn't technically a word...weird...no wonder it looked so strange) perennials and the mulch.

After some root stimulater, Miracle-Gro, sunshine, and rain, we have lots of green and even some color!
Hooray!

I planted three different versions of portucula, but this was the only one with a photograph-able bloom at the time of this post.

The plants the Columbine starts came from are like bushes, now.
We'll see how these guys do from here on out!

Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?

Also - we rescued these beauties from the Lowe's clearance rack. ☺

I'm very thankful for my handy husband, his tool box, and his willingness to help me create this.  This was definitely one of my favorite projects we've done "around the house," so far.  ☺

Speaking of showers...and favorite projects...here's a gift I made for a good friend's recent bridal shower:

Not the best picture of it, but you get the idea.
I used pictures (that I took) from their proposal and quotes from favorite TV shows and movies they've been watching together since they started dating.

So, that was all fun.  Gotta love DIY-ing it.  ☺

Let me know if there's ever anything you want the "scoop" about.  I do my best to keep you posted (pun intended), but am always open for suggestions, of course.

Enjoy the end of the semester, you students and teachers out there!  Everyone else, hope you're able to enjoy the weather on occasion.

Thanks for reading!

With a green thumb,
Kensy

Favorites of the day:

banana ice cream (frozen bananas in the blender...so good!)

thoughtfulness

long, meaningful conversations