Planting flowers today

We had a busy outdoor day today. Most springs get past me and I don't put out any flowers. I think it's been 4 years since I even planted a few begonias. But this year Ben promised to help and today was GORGEOUS - about 70 degrees and sunny. Alek and Gary had gone to a Cub Scout camping trip Saturday night, so Ben and I got up and got working on some chores.

Ben scrubbed all the patio furniture and I painted it with rustoleum. I never thought 16 years ago that our patio set from Endicott would still be with us, but every couple years I paint the rust and away it goes for another year.

We went to the garden center and had a great time picking out flowers! Good think Gary's easy-going, because we spent a small fortune. I was afraid we got too many, but our garden is pretty big, and we ended up with some very nice,colorful, symmetrical arrangements.

The area under the bird feeders, before (he look, Gary's sitting in one of my newly painted chairs!)
Back garden before flowers ...

More back garden before any flowers ...

Nice view of some of the flowers we planted today - Ben dug most of the holes! Gary and Alek took two trips to the Home Depot and brought back all the mulch - we spread 20 bags (although the mulch is now package in 2 cu ft bags ... used to come in 3 cu ft bags!)

In the back you see two plants with long purple spikes - these are very striking! In the middle is a yellow daisy-like bush, and in the front are varigated bright pink wave petunias, and a yellow wave petunia.

The pink flowers under the hanging basket are Pentas.

Lantana on the left, purple spike plant on the right, and 'million bells' in the front.

The yellow flowers in front are called 'million bell's, and the Lantana on the right is the color 'Ann Maria' which it pink on the outside and yellow on the inside. On the far right is the 'shimp plant' which had tall yellow flowers, and on the left is a new plant that will have long purple spikes all summer long.

So Ben and I were talking today and he asked why we didn't have any plants inside the house. I told him that I used to have lots of plants in the house, then we had babies and I had to give all my plants away. So we agreed to find a couple houseplants at the garden store today when we shopped for our flowers. Well, true to form, Ben fell in love with the ugliest plant I have ever seen and now it lives on my kitchen table because it's too HUGE to put anywhere else!

Ben really liked the yellow and orange bloom ... oh my.