Now that planting season is here again (praise the gods!), I am full of ideas on what to grow this year (flower bulbs and seedlings are quaking in fear right now). As a born-and-bred urban apartment dweller until 2005, gardening in the fresh air on my own land had always just been a sweet dream. So, for the five often fun, often frustrating, often clueless years of being a rural homeowner, my front and back yards have been the victims of ongoing gardening "experiments."

Here are some pics of my gardening "attempts" over the last five years:

This is what we started with:


Not bad, right? But it was a little bland. Silly me started to dig up that beautiful front lawn to see if I could grow a small flower garden in the middle of it. Here are some of my "tries":





Impatiens, nasturtiums, some rocks dug from the soil, a $2 shrub from Wal-mart,some gladiolas, a thrifted miniature wheelbarrow with a nest that fell from our lilac tree. That was fun for awhile, but I was a little...unimpressed. So I dug it up and started a wildflower patch:




That was fun too, but all it got me was some scraggly cosmos and poppies and a lot of weeds. So what did I do? I decided to dig up more front lawn and go bigger:











We had nice mix of black-eyed susans, purple coneflowers, sweet william, forget-me-nots, rose mallow, candytuft and more, but it was still a little...unkempt. Though it yielded some beautiful bouquets and attracted hummingbirds and butterflies, I like an organized garden, or so I thought. I can't show you the rose garden I started in the wildflower garden's place because...well...it got eaten by Junebugs the size of Volkswagons. Sigh.

So at present, our front lawn is in shambles and our front shrubs are torn out to make way for a more appealing, low-maintenance, and spider-free garden (the shrubs were shrouded in thick white cobwebs, so lovely). Meanwhile, the shrub trunks are still in the ground, claw-like and eerie-looking, because we couldn't get them dug out before winter last year. What to plant in their place?

Here are some perennials I am thinking of adding this spring:

Purple Ice Plants


Galaxy English Daisy Mix


Blue Cascade Rockcress


Manhattan Poppy


Dwarf Sorbet Lilies


Double Lilac Geraniums

All can be found here at Dutch Gardens.

Spring has sprung, my garden muse is working overtime, and the ground trembles as I pass. Here's to another great botanical "experiment." Wish me luck. 'Cause I'm gonna need it.