Degnoming the Garden

I spent a bit of time degnoming the garden today. Man, do they know a lot of excellent swear words.

This is the front garden, also known as the Birdbath Garden {because of the birdbath sitting in it}. It sits right up next to the front porch, so part of it is a shade garden and the rest is sun. I've got a variety of pretty Hostas in the shade part of the garden, but they are too low to be seen from this vantage {also, the snails gnomes have eaten them to shreds this year}. The sidewalk that runs in front of it leads to the front door there, on the right. The perennials have provided a lot of beautiful color this year, for which I am grateful because annuals {which I usually put in all those empty spots along the front} were not in the budget.

Here is a close up of my favorite section of this garden. A picture doesn't really do it justice, but I love how the Black-Eyed Susans and the Shasta Daisies and the red Yarrow all look together as a sort of hedge behind the Sedum and Valerian and the Cotton Candy Cone flowers.

This Little Missy Daylily was a particularly pleasant surprise. This is the third year it has been growing in this garden and if it didn't bloom this year, it never would. I'm so glad it did.

This is the Sidewalk Garden, another garden in the front of my house. It isn't super colorful {also missing the annuals} right now. The Peonies and Irises and Shasta Daisies and Hardy Geraniums have finished blooming and the Old-Fashioned Orange Daylilies are almost done too. Pretty soon some Hardy Gladiolus will bloom, though, and those are pretty spectacular.

Even when it is mostly just greenery like this, it is still pretty amazing to me because it looked like this at the beginning of March.

I don't cut flowers from my gardens and bring them in the house often. I just can't bear to do it. I even have a 'cutting garden' but I just can't bring myself to cut the flowers out. It leaves a hole in the 'bouquet' in the garden, and they just don't look the same in a vase and cutting them makes them die sooner. But, I wanted to show off this pretty vase I got from my Grandparent's house when I was there a while back as it was getting cleaned out to prepare to be sold. So while I was weeding degnoming, I chose some flowers that were really close to being finished anyway {the Allium looks like it only has about 10 minutes left} or were in the back yard and wouldn't detract from the view from the street {yes, I'm a total show-off}. It will make a pretty arrangement on the table for a few days and I won't feel too badly over it. In this bunch: Autumn Red Daylily, Coconut Lime Coneflower {I just love green flowers – they are such a contradiction}, Shasta Daisies, Dianthus and Drumstick Allium.

Here is a close-up of the etching on the vase. Unlike with the china, I don't know if this is old or new, but I really thought it was pretty and the value lies in the fact that it belonged to my grandparents. I may be cutting flowers to bring into the house a little more often, just so I can use this vase.