Since Columbus Day lined up so nicely for our Hurricane Matthew clean up, I took the opportunity to work in the yard after cleaning up the debris.  We continued the yard work the first free weekend we had.

The front bed needed basic pruning and weeding, but nothing too serious there.  I had to cut back a lot of lantana though – it got a little crazy after I planted it!  Hunter pruned the boxwood bushes in the front since they were also getting a little crazy.  After that we laid 12 bales of pine straw in all of the beds. In both the planter on our front porch and our window box, I decided to plant a combination of dusty miller and purple mums.  Last year I had dusty miller in hanging baskets, and it just looks great next to a jewel tone flower. Our hanging baskets had been down for some time after the flowers were fried & died in August (oops), so I got new liners, put some potting soil in them and added trailing violas.  I’ve potted those before, and they did great and look nice hanging over the edges.

I redid the pots we have in the backyard next to the fire pit.  I added some lavender (to be taller & aromatic), red mums, and creeping jenny.  I’ve used creeping Jenny before, and it always does well and adds a pop of bright green.

The back yard also got a lot of pruning and new pine straw, and we finally finished removing the huge branch that was hanging over the garage from the hurricane, hooray!

A fun surprise was seeing the camilla with buds about to bloom!  I planted that in the spring, and it has been growing, but no blooms yet.  I’ve been checking daily for the first bloom… We also have some more color on the side of the house with all the azaleas blooming in different shades of red and pink.

After the planting and big morning of yard work, we were both exhausted, but loved seeing the immediate results.  An older neighbor even told us how great our yard always looks – what a compliment!

Clearly I’m starting to have some favorite plants that I have managed to keep alive and incorporate in pots or baskets each year.  Who would’ve thought I’d enjoy gardening so much?  Hopefully all of these lil guys make it through the winter into spring!