This morning, thunder woke me up at around five o’clock. I bolted out of bed. My seedlings! After throwing on a sweater, I dashed to the front door and peered outside. Thankfully, they had not been blown away!

While I didn’t grow many vegetables from seed this year, I did start a few peppers and tomatoes. They didn’t mind the storm at all.

These vegetables, among a few other things, are just about ready to be planted. Yesterday my daughters and I completed school work on the front porch, and I couldn’t help but feel so thankful for the plant life that surrounded us.

Lots of perennials are popping up, like this big pot of oregano. Friends, this plant is hardy! It is now growing in four areas around our home, and it likes to spread like crazy.

This plant is just off of our property by a foot, but I still get to enjoy it. I was so pleased to find it! It is a species of native viburnum, commonly known as Rusty blackhaw. I’ve scoured our woods for more, but haven’t spotted any. They need to receive sunlight to bloom, so perhaps they are hiding from me.

My new Apricot Drift Rose is starting to bloom, and it is so delicate and pretty. I am a sucker for roses. I found it at our local Home Depot.

If you walk into our woods, you will find Wild geraniums. I think they are such a lovely wild flower. I simply love lavender blooms.

Before we know it April will then into May, and completely different flowers will be blooming. I really enjoy how the landscape changes through the year.

I hope you have flowers to enjoy around your home, too!

We have lived in our home for nearly four years now, and slowly we’ve been fixing up the place. Thankfully, the changes are really starting to add up.

To be honest, living here has been a “test of patience” for me. I would love for everything to be done at once, but that simply doesn’t work when you are on a budget. So we’ve made changes little by little, and I am so thankful for all of the work my husband has put in.

One of the items farther down on our list has been landscaping directly around our home. I love gardens, and my hope has been to replace a lot of our grass (ahem…weeds) with hand-picked plants. While I love native gardening, most likely not everything will be native in this area. I’ve consoled myself with the fact that the grasses and weeds in the area were not native, either. I probably will add native flowers to the mix once I make a plan.

Over the past couple of weeks, we put down landscape fabric. Then came the rocks, pea gravel, and pine straw. There is a local landscape supply company nearby which sells its bulk material at a great price! We used one ton of pea gravel, which cost $70.00. The rock edging cost $187.00.

We added three White Wedding Hydrangeas, two Jubilation Gardenias, and an Apricot Drift Rose. I’m going to try my best to keep them watered well. The new walkway next to our water access is going to be so convenient.

Before I go, I wanted to share a photo of the Black Eyed Susan I recently separated into 24 new plants. The mother plants are still in the respective areas, which is great.

I’m so happy this project is finished. Next year, we plan to work on the area directly behind the house. Oh, it is a big eyesore!

If you are working on any outdoor projects, I’d love to hear about them!