huge difference! So charming!

Oh, that is terrific! Looks wonderful.

I love all the colors and textures. It sure adds a cooling, softness to your home, doesn't? We need all of that we can get here in Oklahoma. I love the green ivy and shrubs as your base. Looks lovely.

Brovo! I am so proud of you and what you have accomplished in such a short time.

~Annie

Thank you Annie. I have a love/hate relationship with the ivy. See those spiral thingys at the corner of the house? I was planting the Black-eyed Susan vines there and a yellow jacket stung me on the ear! I'm pretty sure it had a nest in the Ivy because their nest are impossible to find in them.

Beautiful! What a nice job you've done. There's nothing like a lot of flowers to brighten the day.
kay

WOW! Oh oakleyoak you don't know how happy your garden makes me. It's beautiful! And mine now looks alot like yours then, tiny little baby plants. Dozens....all doing well, but OY the weeding! I'm being patient. So hard for me. This is very exciting!

Pirula, I've been lucky, hardly any weeds. We get a bit of bermuda and some weeds, but we laid down a ton of mulch before we planted. And when I would see some grass or weeds pop up, they'd get zapped with RoundUp.

I have to say, I think I truly had Beginners Luck, because I planted plants that actually came back, but bigger. I'm just happy I didn't have to plant as much this year. lol

What really shocked me is it's on the north side of the house, and it sat under a solid sheet of ice several times during the winter.

Wow, it certainly has filled in. Having the gardebeds in front of the house instead of the usual grass really looks great.

Rita, what's so funny is when the room was being built the flowerbed area was all in shade that winter, so I thought I'd have to grow a shade garden which I did NOT want to do. The beds are on the north side of the house.

As Spring came, I couldn't believe it, the beds get all day sun except at the porch/house corner which starts to shade earlier in the afternoon.

AND...it's protected from Oklahoma's hot SW high winds in the summer, so the plants don't get whipped around.

Well done! Give yourself a big "ol" pat on the back.

Kathy

Hope you're ready for tonight, Pam.
Batten down the hatches for another wild ride!

What kind of rose is that? Love the dainty leaves and how it covers the ground.

The storm beat many of the petals off my Ispahan roses, darn it. Since it only blooms for me once a year, it is such a disappointment. It usually blooms for about 4 weeks and the fragrance is like none other. Fills the whole back yard with a strong, myrrh-like scent.

If you like large pink roses, I will root you a cutting of my Belinda's Dream shrub rose. It loves full sun - thrives in it. (I got mine from an anonymous giver, a sweet little Sally from Texas, who BTW I haven't seen posting on here yet this spring. Hope she is okay.). It roots easily. I now have two roses and in just the first year! Both bloomed the first year. This year the blooms are even bigger. Blooms are huge, many petaled, and tight and they last and last and keep making more. It has the most delicious fragrance. It really is a DREAM rose.

I like pink and orange flowers together, so I think it would look beautiful with all your oranges.

Let me know via email.
~Annie

Wow, your garden has filled in nicely and I love the colors. Just wait until next year.

Enjoy ~ FlowerLady

Annie, are you talking about the roses in the front of the bed? Those are Carpet Roses. They bloom profusely all summer.

Yesterday I bought a Double Knock Out (pink) which I'll put along my fence. Two large Zinnias which I'll put in the beds and more white wave Petunias which everyone says will grow for me. lol.

Last year a cow got in the yard and ate one of my Knock Out's down to the ground, thorns and all, and the Rose came back bigger and better!