Weekend Work

By Katie - yes I do still exist.  ;)

Jeff, Conor, and Ceara went shopping this weekend while I stayed home and did the housework.  They came home with a lot of flowers, soil, mulch, and a work wagon. 

We dug out the circle in the front for the strawberries.  By "we" I mean mostly Jeff, although we all took a turn with the shovel - even though it only lasted a dig or two. 

 Flowers were planted in the front flower bed because we do have some in the back, but Duke has taken to digging them up.  So we figured we would play it safe and not plant them where he could get to them. 

 With one exception - the lava rock.  Jeff had planted yellow flowers there last year, and this year he expanded on the colors by adding orange and red. 

 The Tiki torches are still there too - our own little Hawaiian area.  He loved going there so much last year that he wanted a small reminder. 

 Look, here's the work wagon Ceara and I put together.  Jeff started it, but we finished it while he dug out the circle:

There will be another picture on down of Ceara with some of the hardware - during the building of it - but Blogger "improved" the uploading of pictures and I have yet to be able to figure out how to move the darn things around once they are uploaded.  Not much of an improvement if you ask me! 

I took some closeups of the flowers before they were planted - I love the way they turned out. 

 The colors are so pretty!

These were all picked by Jeff, Conor, and Ceara and I think they did a wonderful job!

Conor especially likes the Violets - he saw them in the store and Jeff said he wanted them.

 Ceara picked the Bleeding Hearts - I love them as well. 

 With the clay dirt around our house, the digging of the holes proved to be a little harder than usual, but we managed. 

I hope they last a while and don't just bloom for a week or two!

It will look better once we have new mulch down, but it still looks pretty good. 

 I hope the strawberry patch produces a lot of strawberries, as everyone here loves them!

Everyone worked very hard getting it done. 

The pictures below were all taken by Jeff on his Blackberry, and I would have incorporated them into my pictures at the appropriate place, but as I said before, Blogger isn't cooperating with me. 

The Black Raspberry bush we planed on the side by itself - hopefully it will produce many berries, too!

 Ceara on the porch with the hardware for the wagon - it wasn't easy to put together, either.  The flat-head screws were hard to hold while tightening the nut.

Conor helped out with the mowing, so Jeff didn't have to do it all.

 It helps to have a self propelled mower - so he doesn't have to push, just guide.  The flower lineup before planting:

 Jeff's favorite:

 Conor picked this one out, I could go look up the name outside but... if I do, I might not finish the post!

Violets:

Fuzzy pink flowers: 

A little friend showed up after we were done and cleaning up - Conor wanted to catch him and keep him as a pet.  I told him if he picked it up, he could.  Guess he didn't want it that badly.  :)  I did get him to touch it - only after I touched it first though. 

Snakes don't bother me - but spiders freak me out!  Yes, I am aware that is strange, but spiders have 8 legs and beady little eyes... *shudder*.