Spring has Sprung at the E's Casa- Project #11

Mounding Flowers around the front tree & mailbox

Mounding Flowers with my trailing rosebushes in front beds

My Easter Lillies coming up in the bed under the bay window

we added new bouganvia to the planters & trailing flower ground cover in the back- sorry Ill have to take a close up of the back bed..

Hanging baskets for the gazebo (also mounding)

Trailing flowers for the planters on the spa brick (there is a cover on spa to keep the birds out and heat in)

boungavia for the planter by the swing on the deck

trailing flowers for my strawberry planter

Herb Garden for the window sile in the kitchen

If you didn't already know I work for a private school and on Fridays we have a half day.. which means I typically get home around 2 pm instead of the regualr 5pm.  So it seemed natural to have mulch dumped in the driveway friday so we could start the backyard. We thought we would only be able to get the back done before dark and do the rest Saturday. But since we built up the beds  for the past two years with mulch twice a year we didn't need as much mulch this year, which meant less work really.  We started mulching around 3pm and finished around 5:30. We trimmed the palm trees and crate mertals next.

But the three yards of mulch only covered the backyard beds and two of the front yard beds. We were so tired that we decided we would get more mulch Saturday. The mulch place only delivers with a load of 3 yds or more so we went to Lowes and got 10 bags of mulch, tomatoe plants, bell peppers, jalenpeno peppers and onions, as well as tons of flowers to add to the garden. I love spring and I always end up spending about 100 bucks for flowers that last till fall. I feel it is so worth it to add color to our yard because we enjoy our back yard so much in the warmer months. 

 Most of our plants except some of the hardy palms basically go dead looking all winter and come back in the spring. Alot of them especially the cana is coming up and I love seeing it come up and get as tall as the fence and flower. My favorite large bird of paradise plants on the fence are brown and I thought they didn't make it thru the freezes but they both have babies coming up at their bases..so there is hope and as ugly as a brown plant is I have to let it be to survive. So I planted trailing flowers in the planters, bouganvia which is a favorite of mine and mounding flowers in the hanging baskets and in the front of the house. Every year I plant Boungavia in the planters by the pool and the planter that Nate says is throwing up by the spa.. it is a planter that looks like is is sideways (I'll have to take a pic of it).  But once the cold comes they go dormant and loose all life other than their roots. Last year I left them in their planters and it took till August for them to bloom (they got leaves). I was much less patient with them this year. I transplanted them all except the large on in the throw up pot by the spa into the garden. That way the garden they can get larger but also I can have some color in my pots now. So I added new bouganvia to the large pots and one smaller pot that had a hibiscus plant in it last year (it died due to freeze).  On top of my bouganvia we also planted tons of trailing and mounding flowers. They are my favorite because I love to see the flowers spilling over a pot. I planted similar plants in the pots on the spa last year and they got huge! They were gorgeous.. so I can't wait to see them mound and trail this year. As always I add hanging baskets around the gazebo for a touch of color. I loved the mounding penunias and last year I did pink so I felt purple would be a wonderful touch of color this year.

Thankful Nate loves flowers and yard work as much as I do. He loves seeing the progress it makes and watching our yard develop over the seasons. Ill post pics once everything is green, full and lucious in May! May, June & July my backyard looks like a tropical oasis instead of dead!

I also added a mini herb garden in the kitchen window! Can't wait to use them.. well Nate to use them.

Hope you enjoy my pics and Ill post some of when the lilies are blooming and the yard is lucious soon! Happy Spring!