Last Day of April

 It is the last day of April, and we have finished the garden prep. Hurray!
All the troughs are painted and we have our lounge chairs in place in our tiny wooded corner where we can take in the garden and RELAX. The weather is cool, but the sun is warm and it is heavenly to just sit and watch the birds and listen to their songs.

 We have roses in bloom, and the daffodils that I planted late continue to open. Our peppers and tomatoes are coming along nicely and yet the green beans are looking sad. It is still too cool at night to keep them happy. I will replant, me thinks.
I have calibrachoa and bacopa to put in the daffodil pot when they have ceased.

 The Proving Ground bed is starting to sprout little seedlings, thrilling me daily. This is my first time to grow zinnias, from plants and seeds and I am so happy to see their enthusiasm. I have Green Envy seeds planted, along with fuchsia and purple zinnias, which will be alongside.      Dazzling!

 I decided we needed a fire pit and came up with this cheap and easy solution. The tub is from Home Depot, $20 and the grate is from Lowes, $17. We used Duraflame logs and cut them into smaller pieces, just to try out the idea. It worked just fine. But we can't stay awake very long (OK we're exhausted) and so a twenty minute fire is enough.

In the front garden, I ripped out two perfectly healthy yet ugly shrubs and replaced them with a hydrangea, Endless Summer, which I had before in my country garden. Very dependable and this one has tons of buds already. Some added begonias will keep it company until it grows bigger.

 We put the coral bark maple in the empty spot vacated by the ugly shrub. Perfecto, in my humble opinion. I have never done a nicer front garden, and my arm is getting tired from the constant patting myself on the back.
Since we have so much lysimachia, I cut sprigs and stuck them into lots of bare spots, hoping by next year to have a carpet of lime green between the hostas and azaleas.

Speaking of hostas I found a lone white leafed variety at Lowe's, all battered and sad looking and convinced them to sell it to me for $1. Ha!
I've had one before but the voles ate it. Let's hope we have better luck here.