Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Planning, not my strong suit

As mentioned here, it's taken me over a year to turn my attention to doing much of anything with this old ranch house I bought.

OK, I DID have the two bathrooms redone, but that's it. I haven't hung much on the walls yet. A few shelves here and there and a few pictures (mainly in the bedrooms). And the curtains I hung in the living room and dining room were the old partition curtains from the basement in the old house. (scroll down, you'll see them!) I ripped out the vertical seams that were just a loose running stitch that held them together, and I split them up between the LR and DR of the new house.

Yea, its kind of that bad. lol

The same weekend I did the stain of the carport a few weeks back - I also FINALLY purchased a LR rug. (YAY!) With the baby crawling, having at least ONE rug in the house is nice. I also painted the chandelier in the dining room (it was brass, it's now white), AND I dug up a new flower bed at the end of the driveway. I purchased some flowers/plants and planted some around the mailbox.

By the way - dirt is hard. At least that dirt, grass, area, was. 

I also planted some in planters on the carport.

But. . . . I have plants leftover. Which I DID have a plan for, in general. Just not in full. Nor did I plan my TIME. Two shows and getting ready to be gone for a week kind of interfered with getting everything planted.

I have flower beds running down the entire length of the front of the house and I would like to put some flowers/grasses/bushes in there. OK, so not only do I not plan, I can't make up my mind either! I think partly because I don't have a lot of plant knowledge and I've never had to plan a bed this size from scratch.

We took out some of those bushes, but there are still a few there (which I think may be goners tonight).

You can't tell from this photo, but there is NOTHING planted right up near the house though.  Its a little tiny vacant wasteland. I'm not sure why unless they just didn't want anything against the foundation or because of the overhang of the roof casting shade. But there is a heavy plasticy-cover just under the surface there to prevent weeds or maybe keep water out (if it's for water though it's failing miserably).

So anyway. I bought a bunch of plants for there but hadn't really thought out any layout. Then I went away for a week, the plants are STILL in their little temporary pots. Thankfully they are surviving quite well in their temp housing. Then I started thinking about the length of those beds and looking at the plants I had....and, well,

Last night I stopped and bought MORE plants. Flowers and some grasses and these heather 'bushy' things that are oh so lovely. I also bought a butterfly bush. My Grandmother had one which I loved and so I though having one here would be nice.

Thing is, I have NO idea where I am planting that, or in what arrangement I am planting the others. 

I just thought 'pretty plants' - YES!  One of these, two of those, a flat of the other.....

and now I just really need to get them in the ground so they won't be fodder for a door wreath or something. 

I am also REALLY itching for a lilac bush.

or two.

Maybe I should give some thought to where those will go before I buy them though, 'eh?

I do have a really big backyard and could place some bushes in the corner or near the shed.....(I'll have to get some photos of the backyard)

I know I'm planting late this year, is anyone else still planning/planting? Or is your garden all in already?