Begonias Be Here
So. Begonias.
I'm not a gardener. I don't much care for the outdoors. While I enjoy the look of a well manicured and flowered yard, I'm not that interested in making one happen. Just never been of fan of the whole "dirt under my nails" phenomenon. Which is weird because Granny is all about some flower beds. She plants, maintains, weeds, etc from as early in spring as she can until as late into fall as she can. Loves. It. Even at nearly 80 (her birthday's in July!) her greatest happiness is dirt under her fingernails and the sun on her face.
Me? Yeah. Not so much.
But every now and then I'll get a hankering to add a little something to my front porch. The first summer in my current house I went a little all out with some potted flowers. That year I had my whole porche lined with impatiens, petunias and snapdraggons. Hanging baskets of begonias and impatiens. Gerber Daisys. I spent a good bit of money on all that junk and then hated the whole watering thing for three solid months. I finally just let them all die because I couldn't be bothered to care about them anymore. *shrugs*
It's a good thing I'm not that lazy and unfeeling towards dogs!
For a while now I've had a hankering to do something with that bed of weeds that grows in between my walkway and the porch. The walkway, you may recall, is something Daddy installed for me as a surprise. I'd picked out and paid for the pavers but one day while I was at work he installed it. A fact I was grateful for at the time except, I wasn't quite ready for it. I wanted things done with, you know, proper installation. Weed screening fabric. Sand. A little digging to set them just right. Daddy just laid them out and now it's an ugly unevenly sunken mess of weedy cracks.
*sigh*
Since they weigh roughly 60lbs each, though, I won't be doing anything with them myself to fix that walkway. I can, however, fix the weedy patch between the walk and the porch. So that's what my intent was when I went to Lowe's Saturday. I don't really want to plant anything there because a) I don't know what would look right and b.) see above for my loathing for planting and tending flowers. Basically I just want it to look clean, deliberate and neat. No weeds!
Don't get your hopes up. This isn't where I insert an after shot of a finished bed of any sort. But I will show you what my plan will eventually be:
A rock garden for 100, Alex!
Yes. I am going to lay some weed preventing fabric and then spread some rocks and possibly sand to make a little weed free rock garden. Good for drainage, not bad looking and keeps me from wielding the weed eater too often. I got one bag of gray drainage rock and one bag of white marble. Once I got home with them, I realized I'll need at LEAST two more bags of each. *sigh* So that's one reason it didn't get done Saturday.
The other reason?
Well, while I was in Lowe's I noticed that they had six packs of annuals on sale for $1.98/six pack. I waffled over what to get and landed on begonias because they bush out nicely and don't get quite as leggy as impatiens do and they don't require the full on sun that petunias do. So I brought home four six packs of begonias and two bags of miracle grow potting soil and Libby and I got to work.
She thought we were working on the weedy patch, though, and set to digging. Wish I'd had my camera with me for THAT. Picture her pretty little nose covered in dirt. ;-)
I, meanwhile, talked to Sis2 and the kids on the phone while I potted the begonias--hence no during pics. Hard to focus on more than a couple of things at a time. But...Ta da!
Actually, I had enough left over to do a third pot, but its an ugly plastic gray one that used to be a hanging basket so I didn't snap a pic of it. Also don't have? The full-on after. I'm lame like that. After I watered these and let them get a little sun, I moved them to flank the front door which I think looks very pretty. But you'll hafta take my word for it, I guess.
See what I mean about my walkway, though? Really upsets my apple cart, too, because those dag-gum pavers were not cheap and now they look like crap. I've never let on to Daddy about my disgust, though. He was doing his daddy thing trying to help his girl out. Which I love about him. I really do. I just wish he'd have gotten some input from me first.
Anyway, here are a couple more gratuitous shots of the Libster while we lazed on the porch:
Or rather, I lazed on the porch. She lazed in the dirt because she never gets to do that, MOMMY.
We also barked at the neighbors and their gang of ATVers as they roared past our house no doubt in search of more road to rut up while cutting donuts on private property. (A pet peeve of mine. Nothing against ATVers but respect the road and private property, ya'll.)
Barked at a lady walking, too. I don't normally get a lot of walkers (or any walkers!) in my neighborhood. Gravel is not the easiest surface to walk on. Plus, I don't live in an actual neighborhood. My house is one of three in a row but then there's not another house for at least a half a mile and it's set way off the road. The next neighbors after that are another half mile--four houses kinda sprawled out from on another--one of which is the folks' house. So yeah. Strange women walking past our house is an anomaly. We made sure she knew we weren't cool with her soiling our road with her fitness. ;-)
I'm never really sure how to behave when I'm sitting on my own front porch with my dog and people drive or walk past. Wave? Pretend I don't see them? Act busy? I usually do one or both of the last two. I wave only if they wave first. But actually, I'm not all that keen on people noticing me when I'm outside. I know I'm completely weird but, my porch and yard are an extension of my home and I'd just as soon pretend I'm oblivious to other people when I'm outside. Which is why I hate that my neighor on the south side of my house (of the ATV gang) built his shop and has his parties so close to our property line. It brings my outdoor privacy down to zero. And I never know when I step out whether or not he's out there so I just always have to be on guard. I don't like being on guard and I'm not one of those who wants to be friends with all the neighbors. I'd happily live WITHOUT neighbors if possible.
Is it completely selfish that I've begun praying that he and his wife move and a nice quiet private person moves in? ;-)
Oh, but in other yard news, the mower's broke down again. Argh! Daddy was in the middle of mowing my (seriously and depressingly) overgrown yard when a belt of some sort snapped. The second time it's done that in the 2.5 years we've had the silly thing. So, One half of my yard got mowed. The other half is still (seriously and depressingly) overgrown except for a singular path that was cut before the belt thing snapped. Not sure how long it's gonna take to get it fixed since Daddy plans on doing it himself and anything he does depends on how he's feeling any given day.
And that's the news from here. Goodbye and good luck!
;-)
I'm not a gardener. I don't much care for the outdoors. While I enjoy the look of a well manicured and flowered yard, I'm not that interested in making one happen. Just never been of fan of the whole "dirt under my nails" phenomenon. Which is weird because Granny is all about some flower beds. She plants, maintains, weeds, etc from as early in spring as she can until as late into fall as she can. Loves. It. Even at nearly 80 (her birthday's in July!) her greatest happiness is dirt under her fingernails and the sun on her face.
Me? Yeah. Not so much.
But every now and then I'll get a hankering to add a little something to my front porch. The first summer in my current house I went a little all out with some potted flowers. That year I had my whole porche lined with impatiens, petunias and snapdraggons. Hanging baskets of begonias and impatiens. Gerber Daisys. I spent a good bit of money on all that junk and then hated the whole watering thing for three solid months. I finally just let them all die because I couldn't be bothered to care about them anymore. *shrugs*
It's a good thing I'm not that lazy and unfeeling towards dogs!
For a while now I've had a hankering to do something with that bed of weeds that grows in between my walkway and the porch. The walkway, you may recall, is something Daddy installed for me as a surprise. I'd picked out and paid for the pavers but one day while I was at work he installed it. A fact I was grateful for at the time except, I wasn't quite ready for it. I wanted things done with, you know, proper installation. Weed screening fabric. Sand. A little digging to set them just right. Daddy just laid them out and now it's an ugly unevenly sunken mess of weedy cracks.
*sigh*
Since they weigh roughly 60lbs each, though, I won't be doing anything with them myself to fix that walkway. I can, however, fix the weedy patch between the walk and the porch. So that's what my intent was when I went to Lowe's Saturday. I don't really want to plant anything there because a) I don't know what would look right and b.) see above for my loathing for planting and tending flowers. Basically I just want it to look clean, deliberate and neat. No weeds!
Don't get your hopes up. This isn't where I insert an after shot of a finished bed of any sort. But I will show you what my plan will eventually be:
A rock garden for 100, Alex!
Yes. I am going to lay some weed preventing fabric and then spread some rocks and possibly sand to make a little weed free rock garden. Good for drainage, not bad looking and keeps me from wielding the weed eater too often. I got one bag of gray drainage rock and one bag of white marble. Once I got home with them, I realized I'll need at LEAST two more bags of each. *sigh* So that's one reason it didn't get done Saturday.
The other reason?
Well, while I was in Lowe's I noticed that they had six packs of annuals on sale for $1.98/six pack. I waffled over what to get and landed on begonias because they bush out nicely and don't get quite as leggy as impatiens do and they don't require the full on sun that petunias do. So I brought home four six packs of begonias and two bags of miracle grow potting soil and Libby and I got to work.
She thought we were working on the weedy patch, though, and set to digging. Wish I'd had my camera with me for THAT. Picture her pretty little nose covered in dirt. ;-)
I, meanwhile, talked to Sis2 and the kids on the phone while I potted the begonias--hence no during pics. Hard to focus on more than a couple of things at a time. But...Ta da!
Actually, I had enough left over to do a third pot, but its an ugly plastic gray one that used to be a hanging basket so I didn't snap a pic of it. Also don't have? The full-on after. I'm lame like that. After I watered these and let them get a little sun, I moved them to flank the front door which I think looks very pretty. But you'll hafta take my word for it, I guess.
See what I mean about my walkway, though? Really upsets my apple cart, too, because those dag-gum pavers were not cheap and now they look like crap. I've never let on to Daddy about my disgust, though. He was doing his daddy thing trying to help his girl out. Which I love about him. I really do. I just wish he'd have gotten some input from me first.
Anyway, here are a couple more gratuitous shots of the Libster while we lazed on the porch:
We also barked at the neighbors and their gang of ATVers as they roared past our house no doubt in search of more road to rut up while cutting donuts on private property. (A pet peeve of mine. Nothing against ATVers but respect the road and private property, ya'll.)
Barked at a lady walking, too. I don't normally get a lot of walkers (or any walkers!) in my neighborhood. Gravel is not the easiest surface to walk on. Plus, I don't live in an actual neighborhood. My house is one of three in a row but then there's not another house for at least a half a mile and it's set way off the road. The next neighbors after that are another half mile--four houses kinda sprawled out from on another--one of which is the folks' house. So yeah. Strange women walking past our house is an anomaly. We made sure she knew we weren't cool with her soiling our road with her fitness. ;-)
I'm never really sure how to behave when I'm sitting on my own front porch with my dog and people drive or walk past. Wave? Pretend I don't see them? Act busy? I usually do one or both of the last two. I wave only if they wave first. But actually, I'm not all that keen on people noticing me when I'm outside. I know I'm completely weird but, my porch and yard are an extension of my home and I'd just as soon pretend I'm oblivious to other people when I'm outside. Which is why I hate that my neighor on the south side of my house (of the ATV gang) built his shop and has his parties so close to our property line. It brings my outdoor privacy down to zero. And I never know when I step out whether or not he's out there so I just always have to be on guard. I don't like being on guard and I'm not one of those who wants to be friends with all the neighbors. I'd happily live WITHOUT neighbors if possible.
Is it completely selfish that I've begun praying that he and his wife move and a nice quiet private person moves in? ;-)
Oh, but in other yard news, the mower's broke down again. Argh! Daddy was in the middle of mowing my (seriously and depressingly) overgrown yard when a belt of some sort snapped. The second time it's done that in the 2.5 years we've had the silly thing. So, One half of my yard got mowed. The other half is still (seriously and depressingly) overgrown except for a singular path that was cut before the belt thing snapped. Not sure how long it's gonna take to get it fixed since Daddy plans on doing it himself and anything he does depends on how he's feeling any given day.
And that's the news from here. Goodbye and good luck!
;-)
Comments
I hear you on privacy and quiet neighbors. Did I mention I got a new upstairs neighbor this month? An actual quiet one! One that goes to bed before I do. One who doesn't wake me in the middle of the night (so far, at least) or if he gets up before I do in the morning. THIS is what makes a good neighbor!
It's nice you live far enough out. If I'm on a walk with my daughter and we walk by people in their yards, they just give me a nod and a small wave or a smile. Same as you. But I get that, i never know how to respond either...
It's nice you live far enough out. If I'm on a walk with my daughter and we walk by people in their yards, they just give me a nod and a small wave or a smile. Same as you. But I get that, i never know how to respond either...
My neighbor started putting up a four foot fence between our properties but he got only a couple feet finished before he quite. But honestly, what bit of privacy can a 4ft fence afford?
I want to plant a bunch of tall bushy trees since I can't afford fencing but I know nothing of planting trees. *sigh*
The lady who originally moved in has two, which I could swear is the limit per apartment. Then she had a roommate move in a few weeks ago who brought a high-strung (read: yappy) poodle with her. The three dogws were going at it before 7am today, and were still barking nonstop when I got home at 5pm, even attacked their door en masse when I went to unlock mine. Scared the crap out of me!
It's not only inconsiderate of one's neighbors, but it is also in violation of the city pet ordiance, which states that dog owners are not to allow their dogs to bark. If only management would enforce city laws! (chyeah, right...)
Just thought I'd share. ;)