A little bit of landscaping.....

 

 

            In the past, I have always had a few potted plants on the porch.  I usually do four medium pots of geraniums, a large pot of impatiens, two hanging baskets of begonias, a basket of calibrachoa. On the back porch I usually have a variety of petunias, marigolds, and daisies.

            This year, we decided to not only display potted plants, but to also work on the front yard landscaping.  To do this, we had a friend help us take out two overgrown bushes that were hiding our front porch, by putting rope around them and pulling them out with his truck.  We also had to take out a small maple tree on the side of the house that was dead.  We chose to leave two small burningbushes on the side of the porch and two knockout rose bushes that we planted last year. 

            Once we took out the unwanted plants, we bagan to create a flower bed.  To do this we used white spray paint and painted the outline of the bed.  Then we took a shovel and cut out the flower bed. We made sure the bed had some curve to it to add to the curb appeal.

            Next, we had to pick out  the new plants.  This was the part that we really needed help with.  I had an idea of what I wanted.  I knew that I wanted the bed to look balanced.  The spacing of the plants and size of the plants was important to me.  I certainly didn’t want to just plant a bunch of random plants and end up with a chaotic looking flower bed. I needed someone with knowledge about landscaping to help us pick out the right kind of plants.  Fortunately, we had a friend who does landscaping on the side.  He took us to a nursery and helped us pick out all of our plants.  He helped us choose the following plants for our landscaping project: 1 goldenfinger bush, 3 salvia plants, 2 HCG Jacob plants, 3 little Henry bushes,  6 variegata grasses, 2 red riding hood plants, 1 coralburst dwarf tree,  12 viola etain plants, 3 lucerne plants and 1 sun valley maple tree.

            After we brought the plants home from the nursery my job was done.  My husband and our friend went to pick up a truck of mulch, and they spent an afternoon making our front yard look like new.  They did a GREAT job!  This project was completed about a month ago, but the past couple of weeks the flowers have started to bloom!  I am really enjoying the flowers this year.  I can’t wait to see how the flowers mature next season.

 

Here are a few pics of our new flower bed……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiking at Turkey Run State Park

 

 

 

We usually try to do a daytrip the Saturday before Memorial Day.  Last year we drove up to Lake Michigan and had a beach day, but it was way too cold for the beach this year.

 

Instead of putting our toes in the sand, be put on some tennis shoes and headed to Turkey Run State Park for a day of hiking.

 

I love Turkey Run!  It’s about an hour and half west of where we live, but it has some of the best hiking trails in our area.  Most of the trails are pretty easy, making it a really nice park for families, but they also have more rugged trails for those who prefer a little more of a challenge.  The park is not as large as some other state parks, but the beautiful scenery and the well-maintained trails that are easy to navigate make the park a real gem. 

 

The weather was cooler than average on Saturday, which made for great hiking weather.  After picnicking at one the many picnic locations in the park, we spent the remainder of our time hiking.  We spent several hours on the trails, hiking about ten total miles.

 

Here are a few Instram pics of our day.