Garden Journal: July 3rd

 Yesterday I FINALLY got to play in the garden and get everything ready for the summer.  I have been so busy lately I haven't had time to barely even water.  Good thing for me its been raining all spring.  Pictured above are a few containers that I revamped by removing all the spring bulbs that have died back for the year and replaced them with some plant the hummingbirds will enjoy.  The smaller pot has hyssop, coral bells and a purple sweet potato vine.  The large container has cape fuchsias from last year, million bells and multi colored lantana.

I reorganized the patio area in back and put my orchids outside for the summer to help them rebloom in the fall.

 The gnome corner.  I moved a blue-green plant stand outside and bought a plastic top for it to use as a bird bath.  There is a momma and baby scrub jay that have been visiting the back yard and taking baths in the fish pond.

The Japanese maple is still doing great in its pot.  In front the lilies are budding up and should be blooming soon.

 Earlier this spring I added a border around my fish pond and added some really interesting flowers such as this geum plant that is up front with peachy colored blooms.  I also have a pineapple lilly and a white cape fuchsia.  Everything is growing fast and filling in this spot.

These are last year's lights.  I moved them because we kept tripping over them and now they light up the pond area at night.

Super Villian Convention

Calling all Super Villains!  Last weekend to celebrate a friend's 30th birthday we dressed up as villains for a super villain party.  In this photo we have the Hamburglar (Whitney) Cruella Deville(Rachel), the Queen of Hearts (Brandy) and the Wicked Witch of the East (me).

We are dressed to impress!

There was even a part of the house to get our villain mug shots! 

We had to keep Charlotte away from Cruella, she kept eyeing her black and white coat, naughty!

I had a really hard time sitting down in my outfit.  The girls had to help me from choking myself with the roof of the house.

This will do, a cat scratcher to sit on, perfect!  (this is Oz dressed as Bad Santa)

Off with their heads!

Cute little mail man, I mean evil mail man...

A family of trouble makers!

Uh oh, the Hamburglar is at it again!

Update: Pond Life

Its been almost three months since I put my wine barrel fish pond in the backyard. It has really been flourishing since I put it all together. The water lily is especially taking off. There are about four or five more shoots still coming up from the bottom. I'm not sure if it will bloom this year, it doesn't quite get full sun in this spot. And surprisingly the creeping jenny is still going, even though it is not really a water plant. The corkscrew rush had to be removed. I'm not sure if it got too soggy or if it was just unhappy that Charlotte kept taking it out of the pond to swing it around the yard.

Yesterday I reconfigured a few things about it. The water had turned so green from algae growth that I couldn't even see the goldfish any more. So in the morning I carefully removed the plants and the goldfish and held them in a cooler while I removed the old water and sprayed out the container. I also made a net like fixture around the pump because the lily pads are delicate and break if they get under the water fountain.

A close up of one of the lily pads. It just rained this morning so it was covered in rain drops. And, happy to note, all of my goldfish are still alive and thriving!