Phew!

It's been a busy few days with almost all of it being spent outside. The weather has been unbelievably gorgeous...clear skies, temps in the low 70s. In a word, perfect. I spent all day Friday weeding and edging. I cleaned out an area in the front by the fence that had been neglected. Before and after photos below. I finally pulled out John F. Kennedy because he was beyond dead (that's a rose, by the way) and I put the weigela in that spot. I planted the marigolds and lillies that I got for $1 each...moved a bleeding heart that wasn't doing well in the deep shade. Yesterday, more working outside in the yard with Ashley and Patrick...but that's a surprise that will have to wait another week for a reveal.

I have some new garden photos to show, thanks to a request from Pia, who lives in Norway. She's a lovely new friend I've met through a swap on Ravelry.

So, Pia...here are your photos of my garden!

First, the shade garden at the front. Still in the beginning stages. There was nothing here except for the bushes when I started. I have some ferns that I took from "Fern Hill", my dad's property in PA and I'm becoming quite fond of mushrooms.







This is the herb garden in the backyard. It contains 3 different varieties of mint, dill weed, lemon verbena, 3 varieties of lavender, 2 raspberry bushes, flat leaf parsley, basil, tomatoes, red bell pepper, oregano, sage, rosemary, and thyme...oh, and some sunflowers!





This is the bee and butterfly garden. The tall things in the background are gladiolus. This garden contains so many different plants, I don't think I can (or should) name them all here!






A photo of the lillies I just added to the bee garden...



The mailbox has quite a few plants around it, too. This was already established when we bought the house last year. I think the really tall yellow flowers are tickseed but I'm not 100% sure.



This is the project I started Friday and completed yesterday morning. It was a really neglected area and right beside the fence gate. I removed all of the leaves and weeds and added the marigold (and other plant - the name escapes me right now). The photo doesn't do it justice but it definitely looks much neater now!