Green, green, green.

After an entire winter of brown, then bright white, then white-ish, then questionably white, and back to brown, we Prairie folk are sure happy to see some green. The rule around these parts is not to plant anything in the ground until May long weekend (in case of frost). Its a sad reality. I'd say by late September, plants are starting to die off. Sigh, its a short, short growing season around these parts.

So we Neppers were out in full force on May long, getting stocked up on plants. A local greenhouse, Kuhlmann's Market Gardens & Greenhouse, had a coupon which was $50 for $100 worth of plants. Yippee! You know I'm all over it when its a bargain. So we loaded up with bug spray (the mosquitoes are especially evil this year), and off we drove to the far North-side of Edmonton for some planty goodness.

I thought I'd share some pictures of our garden thus far. It always amazes me just how excited we get for gardening season and beautifying our garden, especially considering its such a teeny tiny little patch compared to most peoples. I can't imagine what will happen to us when we one day own a house and have a "real" garden.

Seriously, you need to listen to my husband moon over his lilac.

Yes...it's his lilac.
This weekend Rob also built me one planter box for our garden. There was a house being torn down in the town that Rob's parents live in, so I sent him and his Dad to load up on old barn wood. I'm sure I got an eye roll or two. There was definitely some muttering as well. So in our yard it sat for over a year, and its finally found its purpose. I always find the completion of little projects like this rewarding. Not only because it looks adorable and serves a purpose, but it also makes me seem a little less crazy for sending my husband out to hells half acre to pull planks off a nasty old house. It's in moments like that (although they are few and far between), I feel like he slightly understands the method to my madness.

Ain't it purdy? We have two tomato plants and 6 heads of romaine lettuce.
I also got all the goodies to fill up my two hanging baskets that I picked up a garage sale last summer for $5 apiece. I'm quite pleased with them this year. I have a thing for fuchsias as they always remind me of my Mom.
This is my "mostly perennial" garden. For the cheap woman, nothing is more satisfying that seeing all the plants you paid for last year come back to life. Hooray for garden bargains! I did add some asylum for color.
I've also been introduced to the world of Coleus'. I am IN LOVE. Not only are they beautiful and come in a gazillion different color combinations, but they are also happy in my shady backyard. Hooray!
We still need to plant our herbs, so I'm thinking next weekend, Rob will be building another planter box for those. This year we decided on sticking to the basics - parsley, oregano, basil, celery leaf and cilantro.
Gammy also found a plant that was just perfect for Abbi. It literally gives off the scent of citronella candles (the plant on the far left, above). Abbi was pleased as punch to find a plant that will do away with those pesky mosquitoes. Seriously, a few days last week she refused to play outside due to them.

We also plan on planting potatoes, as we did really well with them last year. I'm slightly opposed to spending $6 on a box of them. While it guarantees 50lbs of potatoes, I don't exactly have the room to grow that many, not to mention, I'm slightly opposed to paying $6 for three or four potatoes. I'm hoping that my potatoes get sprouty really soon. This year I think we will try them in this pot.
Can anyone hazard a guess at what the symbol on it means?
Over the weekend, I had some spray paint fun. Not only did I get the two picture frames painted, but I also put a coat of black paint on this old pot that I got from a friend. It was all nasty and the color was faded from the sun, but a quick shot of black spray paint (which I already had), and voila...a brand new pot!
*I was also introduced to the wonderfulness of Begonias on our shopping trip, which apparently like the shade. I'm loving the Dracena in the middle, and then a few trailers in the back.

This is the bigger picture of the front garden. The dryer well kind of adds a rustic charm to it, but I'd far prefer it with a cool trailing vine all over it. Although not sure it would grow super well with my weekly blast of Bounce.
The other side of the front garden is still a bit of a sad story. Rob has desperately been trying to grown Hosta's for 2 years now. Our neighbors have ridiculously full and bushy Hostas. My husband is seriously suffering from Hosta envy. I suspect they may be the reason for our Hosta failure. Bwahaha. No not really, but apparently they are really easy to grow, and ours just won't do anything. And then two of my Bleeding Hearts got the springtime memo, but the third...well, its not exactly on the same page. This garden really does need an intervention.
So that's a little tour of the greenery around Nepper's Landing this year. Hooray for green!