Just Call Me the Garden Guru

It all started with a bad case of spring fever that I picked up a few months ago.  My first symptoms appeared in early March when the weather warmed up and I, with the help of my mom, rearranged my whole living room and bought 4, count em, 4 live plants to go inside the house. From the four living room plants I developed a growing need to have my own "herb garden." I went to Wal Mart, Home Depot, and then back to Wal Mart to purchase little pots of basil, cilantro, mint, and chives. From there, I began to tackle the yard.  As in, outside.  And I say "began" as though I started making progress on it right away. Oh no. I was completely overwhelmed.  I visited various nurseries multiple times, I made countless trips to the garden centers of Wal Mart and Home Depot, only to walk away empty handed time after time feeling dizzy and disoriented.  

During these visits I would walk down aisle after aisle of annuals, perennials, and whatever else they had sitting out, having the same conversation with myself each time.  "What needs sun? What needs shade? What is an annual? What is a perennial? What can I keep alive? Where do I begin? How much is this going to cost? I can't do this." And then I would leave. 

Then, the unthinkable happened. I made a purchase! Lo and behold Home Depot had a sale in their garden center.  I made a solid decision that I was going to go in, buy some plants, and then plant them.  I walked away with a butterfly bush, 2 hydrangeas, a gardenia bush, and six little pots of hosta. Awesome. I came home, unloaded them, and placed them in their perspective spots in the yard.  It looked funny. So, since I had to go to Wal Mart anyway, I made a pit stop at their garden center where I picked up 3 lantana bushes and 3 azaleas (which were only 2.50 each!). Then I came home and started digging.  Well, I started digging after I made a second trip to Wal Mart to purchase a shovel.... So, I started digging.  The front yard would not dig. I jumped and jumped on the shovel, but made no progress. Note to self: Ben must dig in the front yard. 

I moved to the back yard where I actually made some progress. Hours later I had planted all of my back yard plants!  I know it looks a little bare right now.  The hydrangeas are really small but they will fill out as well as the other plants there in the picture.  As you can tell by the front yard, those plants are all in pots sitting in their perspective places.  We're pretty much going to have to overhaul the front yard dirt before we can plant anything.  Don't even get me started on the landscaping next to the house... that's another post waiting to happen.  Let's just say when they built our house they put the plants in all wrong and now we have, as you can see, an oddly disproportional landscaping issue.  However, I am proud of my small progress and maybe one day I'll be able to put up pictures of our finished yard.  Coming 2012.