Share The Love...Share Plants!

I love to garden and live in an area that is not conducive to doing so without heavily amending the soil or using a pick axe..yes a pick axe to go below 6 inches. Urgh!!! I bought my first home when I was in my early twenties..a rehab. It was a darling little bungalow that I still heart over and do drive bys when I go to visit my brother. Is that stalkerish!!? It was such a labor of love. I promise this post is on gardening..I'm just dreaming of my little house of years past. Any who..labor of love..My brother and dad helped me with the major fixes such as updating the electric and building a deck out back but pretty much everything else was my canvas.

The yard was large and had great trees to work with. I reworked the landscaping and added a shade garden out by the street. I added trees and berms to enclose part of the large backyard and added a hammock. It was my weekend retreat to read the paper. I was weird..my friends would call to go to the mall shopping and I would opt out to do yard work or repaint a room.  I forgot how much I enjoyed it when working with great soil!! So key!  

Recently one of my friends purchased a home for the first time. Oh..it is darling! We all had drinks over there the other night and she has it decorated so fresh, sophisticated with a touch of glam. So as a house warming gift I thought I would plant her a garden. Shade..my favorite! There are so many colors and textures to select from. I wanted to use some of my perennials from my garden and add a few that I purchased that you just can't divide and a few annuals to sprinkle in for some color all season long.  I had a blank canvas..YES! I usually use a hose or some spray paint to guide the lines of the garden..but it was on the small side with some definite starting and ending points so I eye balled the curves I wanted.

She lives up by my old home so the soil was a joy to work with...I was giddy! I found worms the size of small snakes I see at my current home. Here are some before photos and showing progression of clearing out all the grass and roots. My  home backs to woods so I have a perfect dumping area for these sort of items..hers not so much. So I had to figure out what I was going to do. Well this photo proves why I'll never own a Mercedes CLS! (Swoon..I so dig the curves of that car!)

My plan worked out perfectly. I would fill my wooden bulb box and just keep making trips back and forth until the fun really got started which is to play around with the placement of the plants. I had ferns, Astilbes, Siberian Iris, Creeping Jenny, and my all time favorite hosta..Stain Glass. It is a beauty of a plant with all it's variation of greens throughout the broad leaf. It increases in size the second year of planting and the ferns keep spreading as well. Katie will have a beautiful low maintenance garden for years to come.

These lovelies are currently blooming on the side of my home and I clipped a few to place on her patio table. They are Endless Summer Hydrangea. They do exactly what the name says. This is their third year planted and they are a spectacular low maintenance plant. I planted a few last year in my front but they have not taken off quite like these. I can't wait for what awaits next year! 

Enjoy your weekend..the weather here is lovely and we are taking the girls to The Cardinals game for the first time today!