My Ghetto Garden.

Since I have a craptastic back yard full of weeds and barely there grass in the front of my yard that was discussed and shown in full detail in the last post.  I decided that I was going to make my first attempt at “gardening” a pretty easy one. I've never planted a thing in my life. So I had no clue what I was doing or if I’d even be good at it. I actually received a catalog in the mail from my friend Melissa and mapped out an entire landscaping project placing all kinds of flowers in different areas around the house, grouping them by season, color, and height. I was totally excited about it.  

Annnnnnd then I decided not to do it just yet. Ugh. But my reasoning is pretty valid. I want to get a fence put up and I don’t want to spend money and time on an area that I will need to rip out if that’s where the fence is going to go. So I might as well wait until I have the fence in before I really dive into it. But I still wanted to put something in to have a little bit of color around the house.

Last November I was walking through the aisles of Wallyworld and came across bags of bulbs- 12 for $5. So I picked up 6 bags- two different kinds three bags each. I got on all fours (get your minds out of the gutter!!) and dug up a make-shift garden on the side of my house. I was only able to get 48 into it because the ass clowns that poured my slab must have dumped the remaining concrete right there. I dug around it as much as I could- trying to get it out of there. Some were small pieces that I was OK getting out and tossing in the dumpster. But there was one big chuck that I couldn’t get out by myself. So it still sits there. The remaining 24 bulbs were placed around the two trees that are in the front of my house on opposite sides of the driveway.

I then used some of the bricks just hanging out in my garage and did a ghetto fabulous border around the garden. This is what it looked like once I did that. Lame. I know.

Both types of bulbs are tulips and are called Margarita and Angelique.  One comes up early spring and the other late spring. All winter I would pull into my driveway and stare at that side of the house hoping that they would come up in the spring. Fingers crossed.  Since we’ve had such a mild winter and the temperatures are so high now, I think the earth is confused. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with everyone’s flowers/plants/shrubs this year.

But the good news is that for the last 2 weeks I’ve been watching my tulips grow. It’s so exciting!! I got a little nervous there for a second because I could see the green tips coming out of the ground and then we had snow. So I didn’t know if they’d survive or what would happen to them. But each day that it got warmer, they grew a little bit higher. Here is the first really good picture to see how they sprouted.

Then the next day they looked like this.  

Two days ago I noticed that they were much taller and you could see where the flower part would be but it was still covered (wrapped?) in green leaves. Well yesterday I went out and got this!!!

Looks like I’m going to get both sets coming up at the same time or maybe a little bit apart as you can clearly see the two rows of flowers- which was how I separated them. Oh and do you see my ghetto fabulous border with the bricks? Yeah. Keepin it classy at Kristi’s Palace. Next thing you know I’ll have my car on blocks in my front yard. I think I’ll just go and pick up a few of those flat brick-like pavers that are solid and put them on top of these bricks. That way you don’t see the holes on the top.

The trees in front don’t have any blossoms yet but you can clearly see where the flowers will be. Those I did in a circle, switching between the two types to have an “every other one” affect.

Now I just need to go pick up some mulch this weekend to cover the dirt and it should look a lot better. But how gorgeous are they??? I love it. And they aren’t typical tulips as you can see. Even better is that they have multiple blooms on each stem so hopefully it’ll make it look more full. Eventually I’ll add in other flowers to this pit, I mean garden, but for now I’m just going enjoy pulling into my driveway for the next month and seeing these beauties welcoming me home. And I'll enjoy having some of my mason jars full of fresh flowers in my house as well.  

Today's shots.  Getting bigger and prettier!!

If you are wondering, these are the Margarita tulips.  The ones that haven't bloomed yet are a light pink and white combo and they are the Angelique.  Any suggestions from you gardeners out there on what else I can plant here that is easy peasy?  Seriously- I don't have a green thumb.