Trying to cure my black thumb!

There are some good and some bad things we inherit from family. You know the old adage of the apple doesn't fall far from the tree? Well there are several good things that I got passed down, but also a few that I wish I hadn't. One being my grandmother's black thumb. I tend to kill just about every organic plant that I'm in charge of. I had all but given up for quite a few years. When we moved into our new house I decided to try a simple green plant by the front door. Thankfully it was a pretty resilient one. I did remember for a long time to water it, but that slowly faded. And after a while, it finally passed on to other side. So now there is an empty planter beside my front door.

Now with you knowing that background of my abilities..... While I was at my friend's house the other day (see post before this), we got to talking about flowers and how that I would love to have some in front of our house. The builders placed random bushes every so often, only because our LA loan required it. It doesn't specify that they be done in the best way possible. Just that they exist. They also went the cheaper route with pine straw as the ground covering. Ugghh how I HATE pine straw!!

So a plan was put into place. Shannon so graciously offered to go to Lowe's with me to help pick up all the supplies we needed to transform my dreary sad flower bed.

So yesterday, we took the kids and were off!

After some searching, and talking about how much sun the front of my house receives....we decided on perennials that can have full sun. We found some pink double-knockout roses, and some trailing something-or-others..and some other flowers. (Hey, baby steps!...Too many flower names to remember for someone brand new to all this..lol)

Once getting back to the house, we started right away. We didn't get far before I remembered that I wanted before and after pictures. There were a couple things that had to go back into their original spots, but thankfully it wasn't hard.

There were a couple dead bushes that we removed. And NO they were no fault of my own. No, I didn't water them. But we found clay at the bottom of their roots. So from someone that know what they're talking about, they really didn't have a chance. We also moved one of the larger bushes to be under the window. The only red one of the bunch. It made a huge difference. It balanced everything a little better. We then filled in the spots laying out the flowers to get a feel of their layout.

I was working so hard that I broke Shannon's shovel! Those darn roots were stronger than I expected I guess.

After getting everything in the ground, and using all of the red mulch, we decided that we needed more to really fill in the spots. So this time we left the kids with my husband, stopped off to get a tasty treat, and went back to Lowe's for 4 more bags.

This picture was taken by Shannon on her cell phone. She was riding to top of the bags of mulch as I pushed the cart..lol. We got a couple funny looks and one lady didn't really know what to think. We both wished that we wouldn't had the guts to ask someone to take a picture of us because it was quite the funny scene.

So now what you've been waiting for. The after pictures!!

I know I am going to be sad to leave this house! It's the first house we've owned. And now with our pretty flowers to look at, it's going to be especially hard. But thankfully we aren't goodbye to it forever. We will be back. I just have to keep reminding myself. But for now.....I'll be enjoying the view! Let's just hope as time goes on, my thumb starts to get a little greener...*crossing fingers*