Christie Christie Quite Contrary....

how does your garden grow?
Some of you have been asking for pics of my garden (after all the ones in the spring) to see if anything has actually grown - LOL.  Well, despite the fact that we have not really had very nice summer weather, those little babies have made a bit of progress.  Hopefully I'll have more blooms to show you in August some time.
These are the beans that the boys planted with the cucumber plants that I started from seed in front of them.   I do think we are actually going to get a bit of produce off of them!!  Probably not enough for a whole meal (especially the way my boys eat) but maybe enough to nibble on!
Here are my tomatoe plants ( a little later than my friend Hope's - who I'm sure has been enjoying her bounty already).  Nevertheless, they do have blooms so I can't wait to taste that juicy goodness!
These flowers were inspired by Hope as well.  She sent me a pic of these in her yard and I just had to have them!  They are phlox and they remind me of little hydrangeas.  They are the creamiest, richest white ever and the smell soooooo prettie!
These are my lilies.  I have a ton of these.  They are so hardy.  This year, earlier in the summer I dug them up and seperated the bulbs - by seperated I mean pulled them apart - poor things.  I can't believe they are still blooming this well.  There are probably about 12 plants and each of them has at least 3 blooms.  I'm sure I'll be able to seperate them agan next spring!
Okay, so this is where my gardening inexperience starts to show.  These are some flowers I have planted in containers in the front of our house.  I forget what they are called though.  The pink ones are so dense and gorgeous!

This probably doesn't look like much to you but to me - VICTORY!!!  These are the very first buds on my baby hydrangea bushes!!!  I can't wait 'til they are in full bloom so I can show you again!
...bluebells and cockle shells all in a row.
Again, no clue what these are called but they are really prettie, dense little blooms.
Snap dragons on steroids!!  Holy smokes, I have never seen snapdragons this big!  These things are almost up to my waist.  My Grandma always had them when I was growing up but they were just the smaller ones (which are planted in front of these big one but are not blooming right now).
Remember those pathetic rose bushes I was trying to bring back to life?  Look at this!!  The two big bushes are on either side and the little ones are fillng in the middle.
   These are my containers that I planted earlier as well.  The 2 on the left are full of pansies (I love those little faces) and the one on the right is snapdragons and a very prettie white trailing flower.
Well, thanks for visiting my garden!  Take time to smell some flowers of your o


wn today! Pin It

Poppies and Tulips and Roses, oh my...

I wanted to post some pics of my rose bushes since I weeded them and cleaned them out.  Look at the new little babies that are springing up:














































I'm so excited to see all of this new life springing up in my yard!  Even Isaiah's friend's (who are teenage boys) have commented how nice my yard looks.  Just makes me smile.  I'm hoping to get my white picket fence this year and a little arbor over the entrance to the yard that the hydrageas will flank (pretty hey?!)
I did spend a bit of time out yesterday in the yard planting some new additions to my garden.  These are what I've added:
I know, I know, you're not supposed to plant the tulip bulbs until the winter but a few people have told me it doesn't really matter when you plant, they just won't flower until they've wintered.













And last but definitely not least are these new poppies.  I couldn't leave the store without them (who's idea was it to open the garden center right at the door of the grocery store?)
Anyway, the first one is called an iceland poppy (champagne bubbles): 
It already had one of the beautiful pinkish blooms - (that's what sucked me in)!!  And the last one is called an Oriental Poppy and the color is called serenity:
Apparently these ones grow into quite a large plant so now I have to find a good home for these little beauties!!
Thanks again for visiting my garden!
I promise I'll be back by the end of the week with some stamping fun for you!! Pin It

6 Years...

...and it keeps getting better and better!  Today Andy and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary.  We didn't do anything spectacular in most people's eyes.  We worked on landscaping some more of our yard, but in my eyes, this WAS - IS spectacular, extraordinary, above average, excellent.  As we planted two new baby trees - a flowering plum

and a hydrangea bush,
 
the kids ran around the yard, playing, jumping on the trampoline, carrying bricks to help build a patio for their play house, etc. 
I stopped to smell the flowers, so to speak.  While it seemed like business as usual at the Ortmans, I stood in the middle of my ordinary, everyday life and realized that I was living my dream. 
All my life I dreampt (sp) about what I was doing right at that moment - being a wife and mom and making a home for my family.
They truly are the greatest blessings in my life - even in the chaos of everyday life - I love it!!!
To you my dear, sweet, supportive, understanding, patient husband:  Thank You! 
Thank you for our boys,

Thank you for teaching me to laugh at myself
Thank you for teaching me that perfection is not really perfection at all.
Thank you for teaching me to delight in small acheivements;
Thank you for being teachable, for always trying to make me feel loved and special.
Thank you for always putting me and the boys before yourself.
Thank you for being the best Daddy any boys could ask for!
Thank you for being my very best friend, my biggest cheerleader, my plumbline (sp), my hero.
Thank you for always being on my side and most of all - just like I said 6 years ago today -
THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY DREAMS COME TRUE!
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My Finners Hurt

Have any of you seen Happy Gilmore?  Well there is one scene where Happy's Grandma is in a nursing home and the nursing home attendant is making the old folks sew quilts that he can sell.  She looks up at him and says "My Finners Hurt"!  I can relate!!!  I spent part of the day yesterday out in the yard cleaning up a flower bed that hasn't had any attention for 3 years - YIKES!  We moved into our house 3 years ago and it needed some immediate renovations and TLC - we spent time doing that and then embarked on our Paper Pretties adventure which has taken alot of time - allbeit enjoyable!  Anywho, this is the first year we've really had any time to put into the yard.  The flower bed I was working on runs the whole length of our front yard - seperating our house from the neighbors.  Well, the poor thing was so overgrown with quack grass and weeds that you couldn't even tell there were WILD ROSE BUSHES trying to survive in that mess!!! 
So, I got out my trusty garden claw and went to work.  It took me all day and I have more "stickers" in my finger's than anything else right now as I sit and type with my fingernails - LOL!  However, the bushes did emerge - free of weeds!!!  We also found some old wash basins behind our garage which I fillled with potting soil and planted some bedding plants in.  We had a bunch of rocks laying around too, so I got Isaiah and his friend to carry then to the front and line them up for a border.  We are planning to put up a "white picket fence" but I dont' know if it will happen this year!
I absolutely LOVE hydrangeas but we have never been able to grow them in our climate because it gets so cold in the winter!  I've also been TOTALLY jealous since my friend Julie sent me pics of her NEW HYDRANGEA BUSHES - hmph!  So, when I was at the green house yesterday with my spare change saying, "how much can I get for this many"  the lady there showed me a new type of hydragea that they got this year!  They weather to -40 degrees celcius.  The flowers look just like normal but what is really cool is that they start out lime green, turn to a creamy white and then to a soft pink - HOW TOTALLY COOL IS THAT!!!  We have 3 bushes that border our yard that we are hoping to pull out and guess what is going to go there - yepper's you guessed it - some beautiful hydrangea bushes and a flowering plum! 
So, if any of you have any gardening tips for little ole me on how to grow rose bushes (DH bought me one for Mother's Day too for the back yard).  Please leave me a comment and give me some pointers!
Here are some pics of my hard work:
These are the rose bushes - they don't look like much but I'm hoping they'll come in nicely now that the weeds and grass are gone and end up looking just like the ones above!
These are my wash baskets full of bedding plants.  Some have snapdragons and a beautiful white trailing flower and some have pansies - I LOVE their smiley faces!!
Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting my garden! Pin It