WAHM Managed to Work in the Garden

Hello friends, real happy to report to you that I managed to clean up a bit outside today. It was one happy hour outside, under the sun.

As you can see I will have to thin or divide my ornamental grass this season and that goes the same for my chrysanthemum clara curtis a.k.a. country girl. I took the pictures below as i was cleaning up the bed so you'll still see undone stuff.

Now what do I do with the azalea? Must i leave the dead leaves alone?

Must I trim the annabelle hydrangeas? I know I need to rake all around it before the hostas come out. Yeah goodluck with that.

And here's what I really want to share with you, a sign that spring is really here. The first bloomer of the season in my backyard has... awakened from its slumber.

Happy spring!

Bougainvilleas Take Me Home

I've been away from my childhood home for almost nine years. I remember seeing bougainvilleas of different colors like fuschia, white, pink, and yellow. They were at home, in our neighborhood, in school, at my grandparents' house and at the sisters' convent, and I guess every single neighborhood.

As my family and I stroll along the bike path of Ventura State Beach in California, I stop in awe of bougainvillea on the ground, like ground cover. I don't remember seeing them on the ground back home. Or maybe I've been gone too long.

Bougainvillea is a flowering shrub discovered by Admiral Louis de Bougainvillea, when he started a voyage in the Pacific Ocean in 1768. It was discovered in Brazil. A rapid grower, the bougainvillea has thorny woody vines which are ideal for a hedge. It serves as a good screen for privacy. Its flowery and cascading blooms look wonderful especially when the wind blows.

The bougainvillea thrives in warm climates. Where I live, I can only have a bonsai bouganvillea. I yet have to find people who have this indoors and ask them how their bonsai is doing. Perhaps someday, the bougainvillea can live in my new home.

I'm Starting With My Pieris (My First Garden Project)

So many things are possible in my garden. This year, I finally started planting on the flower bed that had been prepared for me a year ago. After spending a lot of hours online finding the plants I like, I plotted my perrenials on a piece of paper keeping in mind the times they bloom, their mature size, and the colors and texture of their foliage. Fragrance has not been a priority to me this year.

My first garden project is my patio bed, and at one corner of it is an existing 'Pieris Japonica' that was planted there two years ago. It looked very sick and I made a promise to bring it back to life. I naturally went online again to read more about it, only to find out that my pieris is a woodland plant and which is sensitive to harsh winds and is sitting under too much sun.

I looked for a garden forum and consulted someone on how to get rid of the pests on my plant. That was the least I could do because there is no place to replant it at this point. Three months later, my pieris is doing well!

While caring for this plant, I am caring for its sister which is sitting on the bed covered with rocks. About the rocks, this is another story for another time.