It's That Time Of The Year Again! Part 2

With D in daycare for the second day in a row, I was able to finish most of the work I had planned to do in the garden since it was sunny out again. But the sun kept disappearing behind the cloudy sky, threatening to rain on me. I hustle my behind and found different spots around the yard to plant all the little pots of seedlings I bought from the Annie's Annuals last weekend. 


In the process of clearing out the weeds (it's a little geranium ground cover that self germinates and grows like crazy this time every year) I discovered some plants I put in the ground from last summer have come back to life. The survivors from last year's planting have grown so much, which makes me so happy. I don't have a black thumb after all, but not completely green either. I feel like I am getting a little better, growing, along with my plants. 

All the plants I bought from Annie's Annuals over the weekend, mostly flowers and couple of grasses. 

This was a strawberry container left by the previous tenant. I bought a strawberry plant from Home Depot and placed the container next to my tenant's door to make her entrance a little more welcoming. 

Our previous tenant also left this half wine barrel with couple of herbs growing in it. I planted couple of the poppies from Annie's to replace the poppies that just finished blooming. The black stuff on top is compost from I bought from Annie's. It's supposed to do wonders for the plants. That's what they use for all the beautiful plants at Annie's. 

I planted this little guy in the back of the house. It's a little lonely for now because it's all by itself.  So I surrounded with bricks to make it a little more special. 

This was taken last summer after I pulled out all the weeds.

Then I went on a planting frenzy in the middle of summer and filled up the space. 

Most of the plants didn't make it to this year, few did and the weeds came back too.  You can't see it in this photo,  but in between the weeds, I made room for the flowers purchased from Annie's. It started raining the day after I planted everything. 

Both the Echium Wildpretii "Tower of Jewels" and the Euphorbia I planted last summer have grown a lot. 

I forget the name of this flower but I see it all over. There was a bunch growing on the side fence last year. When I was giving away the loquat plants, one of the takers had to dig up the flower to get to the loquat so I asked her to let me transplant it. It was looking pretty dead but I guess the roots grew. 

Here is the same plant looking happier this year. 

This corner of the house is a problem area for ferns. The fern on the left didn't survive. 

I put in the dark green fern native to California on the left, but it is also not looking so good these days. When this one goes, I might have to consider a different kind of plant to place there. The chartreuse green ground cover is doing rather well, it's slowly spreading. Next to the light green is a reddish ground cover that's also spreading. I don't know how it got there, but I like it. 

I took a cutting of nasturtium from a friend's yard last fall. 

This is how big it's gotten. No flowers yet, just really big leaves.