Flower Power

I'm going to toot my own horn here for a minute, because I'm quite proud of myself....I took full responsibility for our potted flowers this year.  This might not seem like an achievement, but it's the first time I've done that. We have a general unspoken rule in our house that states Brian takes care of the outside in the summer, I handle the inside.  This year, we changed that up...not because the former system wasn't working, but because I'm kind of a control freak and wanted to do the flowers myself for the first time.  So I bought them all, and planted them myself (*insert back patting here*)  I did step up and helped spread mulch one day, too, but that motivation lasted about an hour before I thought I was going to die.  But I still get points for trying!

Anyway, back to the flowers.  I'm pleased with how a lot of them turned out, and some I'll do differently next year.  My #1 goal was to buy only flowers that required very little maintenance aside from watering (read: NO DEADHEADING)  I wanted to plant them, water them, and admire them...that's it. 

Pots on the patio out back:

From L-R: Calibrachoa, Geranium, Vinca

Gerbera daisy that Jake picked out for me :)

Gerbera daisy with a tiny bloom, butterfly that Jake painted, and more geraniums

Impatiens and Coleus that both went crazy in their pots!!

Impatiens and begonias 

more begonias

The flower beds behind the retaining wall off of the patio needed a little bit of attention and love this year. The previous owners had a lot of nice perennials in there already, so we really haven't had to plant much at all; however, a lot of those plants were completely taking over the area.  Brian spent a lot of time clearing it out and relocating some of the flowers this year.  It looks much better now!

I didn't take any actual before shots this year, but here are some from last year at the luau...you can see how overgrown it was at that time, so it was even worse more recently:

After!

We have some mums in that bed that came back from last year:

And some other unexpected surprises of flowers that popped back up from last year:

not sure what these are called, they came back up along our driveway, and beside our patio

snapdragons that came back up in the front of the house

 I planted some other flowers along the driveway, but sadly, none of them did very well and I'm not sure why.  It's a sad little area right now.

More mums, I'm still hoping maybe these will bloom again in the fall, and sad begonias.

Sad vincas.

Onto happier looking flowers, I have 2 big pots on the front porch with double begonias...one of the pots did better than the other, but they're both still pretty:

See these weird plants that are growing in front of the bushes in front of our house?  I'm not sure what they are, but for some strange reason, they're unevenly spaced (which makes me twitchy) and frankly, they're just not that nice looking.  Sure, they get white flowers in the spring...but those last for all of 2 weeks, then we're left with this heap of green and brown the rest of the year. 

Brian isn't a fan of ripping out plants that are perfectly healthy, but I'm really hoping maybe we can figure something out next year.  I wouldn't be opposed to transplanting them to another area that isn't....oh, directly in front of our house.  I'd love to get something with some color in there instead! 

So there you have it, my friends, the complete outdoor tour of my hard work.  Not too shabby for my first time!