Changing season

Since Friday's post you know that I needed a pick-me up. What better reason to swing by the blue box to browse the gardening section for some little lovelies for my yard?

Lowe's did not disappoint. In fact, I ended up the kid in the candy store marveling at all the clearance and sales tags in the gardening section. Woot! Even the distressed plant shelf was nicely stocked!

Distressed plant shelf? Well, I don't know about your big home improvement stores but ours here occasionally seem to hire people with not so green thumbs. Thus they end up with a bunch of plants that look mighty disheveled and/or shriveled, and they sell these poor abused lifeforms for very little money. Like a 10th of the original price low. Not always do I end up taking one of these patients back home with me; my own thumbs aren't overly green and certain kinds of plants become death row candidates in my care.

Others, fortunately, do thrive and since the canna lilies I bought for $10 a pop a few weeks ago seem to love their spot and don't object to my care, I picked up 2 of their distressed cousins. Canna lilies grow from bulbs, so unless the bulbs are rotten to the core, they will come back next year! I also decided to take an electric blue salvia home with me and a few other things to pretty up the outside of the Ugly Duckling.

My little plant arrangement next to our entry door had gotten a bit out of control. I'd unknowingly bought a bleeding heart -vine- and it's a really enthusiastic grower! I had to cut it back on a weekly basis and so it always looked disheveled and out of shape (and bounds). It's not like our house needs any help looking disheveled - far from it - so it had to go.

[Before: Potted plant out of control!]

At the blue box, I picked up 3 little yellow Mums (nothing says "Fall is here" like blooming mums!) and splurged on a cute, 2-tiered topiary. Then I got down and dirty and started digging up the existing plants. Crazy growing bleeding heart was earmarked to go into the backyard, along with the potatoe vine, and unknown trailing plant no. 3 got to hang around with its new buddy, the topiary.

[In Progress: Diggin' in]

Out with the old and in with the new - switching up the planter didn't take that long and only half an hour later, our front porch and entry looked much much better!

[After: So much better! All nice and tidy]

Just wish me luck I'll be able to keep this pretty poofy topiary alive!