Our Front Door For Spring

My plan for our front door began last fall, particularly in the month of October.  I knew that I wanted some color by our front door and decided to plant some tulip bulbs in two pots that would sit on either side of our front porch.  The boys and I set to work and planted some pink tulips in preparation for some spring weather after a long, cold Wisconsin winter.  I kept the pots in the garage all winter long so that they would not freeze too hard.  Once things began to bloom in the yard, I brought the pots outside.

These are the tulips we planted.  They are called Mistress Triumph Tulips.  However, as you will see in the following pictures, the tulips are not quite the color shown on the bag.

Here are the tulips in full bloom.  They aren't quite the pale pink I imagined, but they are still pretty.

Strangely enough, there seem to be a combination of a light red and a bright pink in both pots.  I have no idea how that happened as the package shows pale pink tulips.

Next year, I'll plant some tulips in the window boxes my husband made for me as well.  The planning has begun already!

Do you have any spring flowers welcoming visitors to your home?  I would love to see them!  Does anyone know why my pretty pink tulips morphed into red and hot pink ones?  Because seriously, I have no clue...

Have a great evening!

I'm linking up to:

Home Stories A to Z

Nesting Place

Bring a Little Spring In

I was at the grocery store last week and wandered into the floral section, which is pretty typical for me.  Those darn flowers lure me in there every time.  I can usually walk out empty handed and stick to my list, for fear of going over my grocery budget.  This time I got distracted by a sale on little pots of spring flowers.  For a couple of dollars, I got some pretty pink tulips in one ugly little paper wrapped pot.  After putting away the groceries (which for me is always the worst part about shopping, usually because I refuse to organize the fridge and pantry before I go) I put those happy spring flowers into a new container.

First, I put some rocks at the bottom for drainage.

 

Then, ever so carefully, I pulled those root-bound tulips out of that sad little pot.

I added a little potting soil and some moss, to make that dirt look less dirty.

Then I watered them and placed them in the sun in the living room.

 

 

Over the past few days, the other tulips have opened up and they are so pretty!

I've got spring on my mind, folks.  Too bad we're under a winter weather advisory today...  Hopefully whatever we get melts fast!

Anticipation

I can't wait for this...

 

Fall Window Boxes

Hello!

We're having quite the busy week around our house.  I did manage to squeeze in some time to put together my window boxes for fall.  Jason made me these beautiful window boxes for Mother's Day earlier on in the summer.  I love them.  I can't wait to decorate them for every season.  I'm thinking pine boughs, winter berries, and lights this winter and tulips this spring.  Now, I'll show you what I did for fall.  I went to my favorite local nursery and bought some bronze colored mums, flowering white kale, pie pumpkins, green fairy tale pumpkins, and some gourds.  The white and orange (which you'll see later) pumpkins were ones that we already owned.  They are the carvable pumpkins you can buy from Michaels.  Jason filled those with sand so that they wouldn't blow away!  We've had them for about four years now.  My husband is a genius, I must say.

Like most projects around here, I had this little cutie to help me out.  Oliver was inside the house, napping away!

To begin, I cut out the white salvia which was looking a bit neglected from my lack of watering...  Oops.

I planted the kale in each of the four corners of the window boxes.

I then planted the mums in the middle.  The smaller window box got one plant and the larger got two.

I then filled in the empty spaces with my gourds and pie pumpkins.

I'm not sure how the plants I left in the box will weather in the cold, but I didn't have the heart to give them the boot.  If we get some frost and they die, I'll just pull them out.  I do like how they fill things in a little until the mums and kale get a little bigger.

This is the smaller box under our dining room window.

This is the larger box under our living room window.

Here's a full house shot.  I love our Cape Cod house!  Oh, and the orange pumpkins on the steps are the pumpkins I was talking about earlier in this post.  I'm not sure if they're staying or not.  They look a little bland compared to the vibrant orange pumpkins.  Maybe it is because they're not real!  :)

The rest of the pumpkins and gourds I used in the the planters on the porch.  I'm thinking the pots need a little height, so we're planning on taking a hike this weekend with the boys to gather some sticks.  We'll see what we can find!

I'll let you know if anything changes with these window boxes.  I'm sure I'll post about them again when the mums bloom a little bit more.  Also, what say you?  Should the bland, fake pumpkins stay or be booted to the backyard planters?

Night, all!  Have a great Wednesday!

Our Flower and Vegetable Gardens

Good Wednesday morning to you all! 

I'm here with the post about our flowers and garden I promised you all yesterday.  Get excited.  :)

I'll be the first one to admit that some of my flowers this year are disappointing to me.  Particularly my Salvia (the annual kind).  I always plant purple.  This year when I bought a flat of them, they had no flower buds on them.  The only thing I had to go on were the tags stuck inside the plants.  The tags on the plants said they were purple, folks.  However, when they started to get blooms on them, there was no sign of my pretty purple.  Oh no, I only saw white.  So what's the big deal, you say?  Well, I already have white impatiens and Dusty Miller, which is gray.  So there wouldn't be much color in my window boxes or front flower bed OR my back flower bed.  Bummer.  Here is a picture of the purple Salvia in my flower beds and pots last year.

I guess we'll just call this year my "monochromatic" year.  Here is the front flower bed.

Here are the lovely window boxes my husband made for me.

This picture is one side of our house.  Since we live on a tiny lot in the city, you can also see our neighbor's flower pots and his sidewalk.  He's going with red again this year!  So much for privacy, eh?

Here is the full front shot.  Things have filled out again and bloomed even more since this picture was taken about a week ago...

Here is the other side of our house.

Here's what we have going on in the back.

 

In our garden this year we have planted Roma tomatoes, Big Boy tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, green peppers, bush beans, and pole beans.  That's a whole 'lotta stuff in a very small space!

Phew!  That's all she wrote.  I hope you enjoyed the "tour" of our yard this year.  I'm off to clean and bake in between taking care of my sweet boys before our company arrives tomorrow.  Yikes!

God's richest blessings on your day!