It started when we went to Dr. Kielbasa's house on Saturday evening for the first cookout of the season. His garden is always beautiful, and he has become my gardening guru, but I've never seen such beautiful hollyhocks in my life. They're 9 feet tall with perfect blooms and lush foliage. I came home obsessed with improving our exterior here at Bookends Cottage...
Yesterday, I cleared the bed beneath the bay window of the dining room, only to find three half-strangled Burning Bush plants. I'm not a big fan of this plant
—in fact, I don't like shrubs in general
—but I gave them some breathing and sunning room. In a few weeks I intend to move them someplace else in the garden and replace them with three rose bushes, which will brighten up the window considerably. Shrubs are so boring. I'm also going to separate the bed from the lawn with used brick edging.
While trimming the holly that had taken over the water faucet area, I discovered a brick path and plenty of room for the hoses and a terracotta pot I use to hold sprinkler heads and sprayer nozzles. That was a welcome revelation because garden hoses and I don't get on very well with each other. During my cleaning of that little area, I found an expensive sprayer nozzle that I bought last year, used once, and then promptly lost. I'm glad I didn't succumb and buy a new one a few weeks ago when I was tempted to do so.
None the worse for wear, this morning I woke up with an itch to paint the front porch. It was in dire need as the paint was peeling and looked ratty. As much as I like the Shabby Chic look, it's meant to be employed with small pieces of furniture and accents, not the entire woodwork of the a porch's structure. Putting the speakers in the porch window and pouring myself a large iced tea, I got to work, and I must say it looks great! I even painted and decoupaged the ugly black mailbox.
I repainted a small potting table, hosed everything down, and then sat back with a beer, enjoying the approach of evening.
My next project is to pull up all of the Monkey Grass in the bed that lines the drive, prepare the soil, and then, in autumn, plants bulbs. We already have daffodils, but I want to add tulips and crocuses.
Maybe I'll get back to writing in June.
