stories from the 'hood

in response to judy's blog post ( http://judycrawford.blogspot.com/2009/05/bikeseat-and-bambinos.html ) requesting a blog picture dialogue of gardens, i have gobs of garden pictures to share. i am really into getting a blog 'dialogue' going, so even if you don't know judy, go ahead & do it! i hope lots of folks do this...i am curious about gardens, i guess. & i really enjoy gardening & looking at the flowers, blooms, veggies, & wondering when i can dead head the dying blooms. maybe i even enjoy working in the gardens more than looking at them? i do know that when i get to walk outside, pick something from the herb or veggie gardens & then take it inside to eat...i feel very satisfied with our work & also the food.
the one problem i have with gardening is that i can't remember names of plants very well. or not at all? i have some stored in my mind, but most of those in my flower beds, well i have no clue half the time. even the veggies...i can tell you what it is, but not what breed or however you would say it.

so this first one is of a flower...but what is it? anyone know?! it sprang up this spring.

corral bells, love 'em.

greens in the odd shaped bed.
mint in the triangular bed.
lilies, irises & lavender in the side patio bed.

this is a repeating bed of corral bells, brown-eyed susans, forget-me-nots, phlox, & some ground cover that i really don't know the name of (most of these are from my mother in law...thanks, sue!)

our main veggie garden. tomatoes, 3 types of onions, peppers & marigolds to keep some pesty animals out (worked so far in this bed). past the veggies would be my lilac tree/bush that hardly blooms anything...grrr. & more iris/lilies.

strawberries!

azalea, random odd stuff (garlic chives? wild flowers?) a few rose bushes, hop hut with 6 hop varieties.

asparagus! we planted 15 crowns & so far 17 shoots have come up! yum yum.

my 3 tiered herb garden filled with the basics: lemon verbena, thyme, parsley, catnip, bee/lemon balm, chamomile (mine hasn't taken over at all like judy's...), 3 types of basil, cumin, chives, garlic, egyptian walking onions). i think that's it...

side of the house 3 tier garden with vine veggie plants. too many to tell! this is the garden that the varmint ate most of the starts. wes replanted with seeds...but he's still sad. *frown*

side of the front flower bed with lamb's ear & hostas, & an assortment of smaller things. also in there is the bird bath i bought wes last year. the lovebirds, of course, represent wes & i! of course!

the work-in-progress-flower bed. *sigh* this is in the very front of our yard & it smacks up to our neighbor's BEAUTIFUL garden. *bigger sigh*

hostas & sweet woodruff.

allysum, shasta daisies, rhododendron, grasses, etc.

in case you haven't noticed, we are doing an all white & green front yard...it is much more difficult than anticipated, but when we do get it filled in, i'm envisioning stylin' front yard gardens!

clematis! this is one of my 10 favorite plants. i love it!

the front with clematis, white violets, grasses, a grape tomato plant in a pot, mums, hollyhocks, roses, & some other things my mom just recently gave me (all with white or green blooms). & there's a few plants in there that i don't know the names of. yeppers.

& that is the gerbickian gardens. i hope you enjoyed your tour.

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so if you read judy's comment from yesterday's post about addy's toilet issue yesterday...i totally forgot! here it is: adeline, amelia, & i were in the family bathroom at the polaris mall, which is great b/c it's just one big bathroom with a wee toilet, adult toilet, wee sink, adult sink, & then a very large changing table area. so adeline had just peed in her toilet & i in mine & poor little amelia was crawling on the bathroom floor b/c remember i had forgotten the stroller--wait, that was the first time we went to this bathroom. this time amelia was still in the stroller. still, the had crawled around that nasty bathroom floor...what was i to do? ICK! (what they are missing in this family bathroom is the child restraint seat. ah-ha!). anyway, i was washing my hands & changing amelia's diaper & pants b/c somehow she was totally soaked (okay, not somehow...she had peed so much her diaper was leaking, yea, bad mom alert one more time, lol). anyway, i look over just as addy was leaning into the adult toilet seat, her hair falling into the water. i screeched for her to STOP! & she just kept going, peering into the toilet bowl b/c it kept flushing b/c it was the automatic flusher kind. anyway, she basically gave herself a swirly in the toilet water. really gross, eh? & come to think of it, since i totally forgot about it, she didn't get her hair washed last night & continued sucking on her hair (her new habit, hair sucking/chewing) yesterday & today. yuck. & we wonder why our girls keep getting sick? lol!

also today, amelia crawled from our living room, through the hallway, into the dining room, & went to her favorite spot: in front of the sliding glass door where she proceeded to bang bang bang on it until i noticed that she *apparently* wanted to go outside. it just shocks me how well she's crawling right now. & her top left tooth is in...yea! now one more to go & hopefully we will have some time off before the next set start. can you say s-l-e-e-p is needed here?