Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! Especially to my mom, who gave me a present on her day. As far as moms go, I think I got the best one. We spent most of the day planting flowers in the yard. We had so many Lillies and Dahlias to plant that we had to peel up a few layers of grass to make a new flowerbed. I have an Eastward facing balcony, I get most of the morning sun, and full sun on some parts of the deck until about 2:30 in the afternoon. The great thing about a container garden is that you can move pots around to get more sun; or rotate the containers when your plants start to lean sideways. So mom gave me this really cool digital camera that has this nifty little function...I takes vivid pictures of flowers! How cool is that?! So I thought I'd give a little tour of the garden in pictures. Here are some of the flowers bloomed out in my garden.

I bought a couple miniature roses in the houseplant & floral section, they stay small and are easy to take care of. I transplanted them into bigger pots immediately and they have been very happy on the balcony every since. The red roses share an old 2.5 gallon aquarium with a vevelty silver mound and Fire-Witch Dianthus. Later in the summer a White Gladiolus will grow up in between.

I bought a mixture of miniature gladiolus from Moir (another garden friend of mine) which get about 1.5' tall; and I found a bag of 30 full-size White Glads for $2.50 at Menard's, a deal I just couldnt pass up. I planted the miniatures in the flower boxes I suspended from the deck rail; and I grouped the full-size white Glads in containers against the railing. They should grow into a pretty nice privacy hedge later in the summer.

I also love tiny flowers. I bought these rose pink forget-me-nots at the local garden center. I planted blue forget-me-nots from seeds, but they haven't come up yet (Keep your fingers crossed). I planted blueish purple violas with blue bachelor button, black holly-hock, and chocolate morning glories.

This is a North facing view of the balcony. I tiered containers with a variety of plants around and angel statue. I filled in the gaps between containers with violas planted in mason jars. The jars give the flowers a little height over the containers and are slim enough to fit in between.

The fenced off area is the vegetable garden. I am already snacking on baby spinach and mixed greens. I planted baby carrots and strawberries in the hanging baskets. I also planted hot & banana peppers, a couple varieties of tomato, and eggplants (which are just tiny baby seedling right now). I have just enough room left in there to plant a bush sugar baby watermelon. Bush babys can are good for small spaces and can be grown on a trellis. Potatoes are planted outside the fenced area, and I have to trim them back constantly. The raccoon I traped a couple nights ago "helped" me with that when he shredded three plants while fighting desperately to get out of the cage.

The house next door has a gorgeous back yard. This is a view of one of my hanging flower boxes overlooking the neighbor's back yard. He has apple trees and a big white barn. I planted Money Plant that will get big draping, opalescent, leaves. My mom's friend Sama made the terra cotta tile and she was nice enough to give it to me for my garden (Thanks Sama!). I planted Chinese Lantern in a row in front of the money plant. It will produce little green fruits that attract butterflies; and in the fall the little seed pods dry up turn bright orange. Jade Plants drape on either side of the box. They haven't done so well since I transplanted them, but I'm hoping they will perk up in the next week or so.

There will be way more pictures to come. I've been clicking away with the camera since I got it (Thanks Mom!). There are a whole lot of pictures to go through. These were just a few of my faves.