For what? SPRING!
Today is the first official day of spring, and I'm so thrilled that it's finally here. Even though the high today was 51 (weird!), I'm going to willfully ignore the freaky weather and worship the fact that sunny days are on the horizon. Even if stepping outside was a reminder that it's not quite flip flop weather, I have a reminder that's doing juuuuust fine.
Brett brought me these gorgeous beauties after my surgery on Thursday, and they've been cheering up our kitchen ever since. He did a not so shabby job arranging them in my favorite pitcher, right?
They're just serving as a gorgeous reminder of one of my favorite parts of spring. The flowers! I love flowers so, so much. Too bad I have the blackest thumb on the planet, right? Regardless of my terrible gardening skills, I'm ridiculously excited for gardening season to start back up.
We've already started with some weed killer for the cool season weeds that are killer around here. And one of our neighbors actually cut their grass last week, so I'm sure it won't be long before I'm pulling out the mower (one chore I surprisingly don't loathe!).
But thanks to the wacky weather we had around here this yer, we'll also have a couple of bigger jobs round here. Our normal weather allows us to have some plants that are normally reserved for tropical locales, like palms, citrus trees, and hibiscus. One of our favorite plants in the yard was the big, beautiful bi-colored hibiscus on the back of our house.
Gorgeous, isn't she? It was blooming well into November, and looking great in December and early January. But then we had three days of hard freezing weather, where the temp never rose above thirty. Which hadn't happened in something like 50 years. And the poor old girl didn't make it. Along with a ton of other hibiscus in our neighborhood. I imagine there will be a shortage in nurseries this spring!
We also lost a banana tree (which we didn't love anyway), but were relatively lucky. But on the docket for this spring?
1. Replace the hibiscus (we haven't decided if we're doing another hibiscus or something different. We definitely want something with color. An azalea maybe, or a hydrangea. No idea if those work with our climate, though)
2. Redo the edging on the front beds. We're tired of the plain green strips of metal, and we're planning on doing red stone.
3. Redo back beds. This will involve getting rid of A LOT of cast iron plants (Seriously, we have SO MUCH it's insane), mulching, edging, and maybe some stone? Maybe? I also want to highlight the gardenia more than it is now. Mmmmmmmmmm, gardenia.
I also would love to do something with the patch of grass between the house and the carport. I'd really love to start a garden, but I think there's not enough light there. I'm also aching for a citrus tree, but have no idea where to put it.
Are you excited for spring? Or would you rather hide under the covers, far away from the lawn mowers and weeds?
