Poison Ivy!

This shade garden looks great this year, but deceptively so. I was cleaning out some wild strawberries and hackberry seedlings and must have gotten into poison ivy. The underside of my left arm made pretty good contact, and it is still in the itchy stage. Liquid Bandage works pretty well until it starts peeling off.

My columbine has reseeded very well in this bed. My red trillium has mulitplied this year, but my pink bleeding heart didn't come up. There are 2 lavender azaleas that I just planted to replace the old ones that died due to the drought last year. My 5 goldfish survived the winter in the pond. One is pretty fat, so I'm hoping for babies!

I have spent the last week planting the garden and shrubs and opening the pool. I am dog tired at the end of the day, but I really don't care. I am thrilled to be outdoors and doing what I love. Poison ivy won't stop me.

Planting Shrubs

We finally were able to go to McMinnville to buy shrubs on Saturday. It was worth the 60 mile drive. We got everything we wanted and by buying directly from the growers, we saved ourselves several hundred dollars. I was really excited to get Encore Azaleas in 3 gallon pots. Locally I could only find them in 1 gallon. I got the fragrant Viburnums I wanted, too. We found one grower who specialized in annuals and we got 2 flats of some pretty unique plants. My muscles are sore from digging holes. It's going to take awhile to get all 25 shrubs planted.

Spring Planting

Spring is finally here! I bought a flat of Calibrachoa (Million Bells) for hanging baskets. I also bought some Better Boy and Early Girl tomato plants, bell pepper plants and some annual herbs. Our garden hasn't been tilled yet, but I can't wait to try out the new mini-tiller we bought. I plan on expanding the garden this year to include eggplant, yellow crookneck squash and Italian green beans.

My pink tree peony has lots of buds ready to bloom. Hopefully they will get to bloom this year. Last spring we had a hard freeze in late April and it ruined all my peonies and irises. After the drought last year, I was afraid that there wouldn't be many blooms, but so far it has been beautiful and lush.

I have been enjoying getting my hands into the dirt. I have transplanted several azaleas and rhododendrons from our front yard to the shade under the oak trees so we can redo the front yard. My muscles ache from digging up shrubs, but I am extremely happy to be outdoors and gardening.