Mother's Day

This past Saturday, we celebrated my first mother's day. Goodness. 

It was a beautifully warm weekend -- we spent the entire day outside, gardening and chasing Amelia, and had delicious smoky BBQ ribs for dinner. It was simple, sweet, and couldn't have been more perfect. 

Instead of buying me a big bouquet, Chris took me to our local nursery, Linton's, to pick out flowers for our window box: purple wishbones, yellow begonias, and a few artillery plants (my new favorite succulent, pictured above.) The window box is a little scrappy looking at the moment, but I know the flowers will eventually fill in more and it makes me smile every time I leave the house.

Our little weeder gave me a bouquet of her own: dandelion tops from our yard. She proudly handed over the flowers that didn't end up in her mouth first. Words really cannot express how much Amelia Joy means to me. Seeing the world through her eyes, watching her grow and explore, the way she reacts to spring leaves and sunshine -- it is nothing short of magical.

Sometimes I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, holding her in a fluffy towel after bath time, and I'm taken aback by how natural it is to have her in my arms. She is mine, I am hers. I haven't even been a mother for a full year but sometimes it seems like she is all I have ever known.

It can be challenging but it is wonderful and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Garden Planning: Shady Perennials

Spring has finally arrived in Indiana and it makes me so incredibly happy. Tiny buds on the trees, daffodils and hyacinth everywhere, blue skies with puffy clouds. Sunglasses! Iced coffee! Hooray! It's still pretty chilly and we had several inches of snow last week but I'm not letting that faze me. I have been daydreaming about gardening for several months now and I'm ready to dig up our yard.

I've had a little experience in vegetable gardening, but I won't pretend to know much about flower gardening. I'm doing my best to turn that around this spring and summer. I've been reading books, blogs, and perusing the Better Homes and Gardens website for lots of tips (their plant encyclopedia has been incredibly helpful.)

If anything, I know that I want lots of pretty flowers in soft hues and I don't want to work hard for them to thrive. I also don't want to spend a ton of money on landscaping each year, either, and we have a ton of trees, so I'm in the market for perennials that will flower year after year in our shaded yard. Although that limits my options a wee bit, I was surprised to find a lot of beautiful blooms that fit the bill. Here's a selection of what I hope to plant this year..

ALLIUM  These puffballs stole my heart years ago, during a date to the zoo with Chris. Alliums are in the onion family (think chives, green onion, garlic) so you can enjoy them in the garden and in the kitchen. I hope to plant a wide variety to stagger the bloom time throughout the spring and early summer.

BUNCHBERRY  This shade-loving ground cover is my space-saving alternative to a dogwood tree. Although the flowers fade after spring, bright red edible berries are left behind and the leaves turn fiery red in the fall.

ANEMONE  I discovered this beauty back when I was wedding planning (just look at the variety of arrangements on Pinterest!) I love the large loose petals and intricate centers. These flowers grow in dappled light or shade up north, making them perfect for our tree-covered backyard.

DELPHINIUM  The giant stalks of delphinium will bloom in the both spring and again in fall if trimmed. Perfect for adding a little vertical interest. 

VIOLETS  I'm partial to wild violets that are scattered throughout the yard, but this larger variety is lovely and offers cheerful blooms all season long.

CREEPING BUTTERCUP  Unlike many other varieties of ranunculus, creeping buttercup grows in full shade. That yellow is the perfect pop of color for a shaded area.

PEONY  Okay, okay... peonies don't exactly grow in the shade. But I have to have one. I don't need to wax poetic about their beauty. You guys know. You know. I will find the sunniest spot in my yard and make it home to a peony plant.

FORGET-ME-NOT  There was a whole mess of forget-me-nots planted around the water of our first home, and because of that, I plan to plant them at every home Christopher and I share. Nostalgia!

CLEMATIS  Like many other flowers, clematis will always remind me of my mother, who has a beautiful purple variety entwined around a birdhouse. These vine flowers do well in dappled light, and the large Henry's clematis variety blooms all summer long.

GERANIUM  Geraniums are a childhood favorite of mine, but sadly are not annual flowers up north. Enter the perennial geranium: a hardier variety that flowers for months in warmer weather. It thrives in full sun, but can handle part shade as well.

BELLFLOWER These lovely star shaped flowers are a new favorite. They bloom from spring well into summer. Yes please. 

HYDRANGEA  Yet another childhood favorite... how could you not love the fun puffball flowers of the hydrangea? These shade-loving plants bloom from summer to fall.

We're probably a few weeks away from the last frost (it always sneaks in one final chill in May up here) but I'm ready to start incorporating my floral picks into a few layout sketches and start tilling and amending the soil.

Nature in general was always a big part of my childhood... I'm very excited to share the beauty of plants with Amelia and teach her how important the earth is. She just turned eleven months this week and is becoming much more aware of her surroundings. I have a feeling she's going to love the allium and delphinium. Can't wait!

Happy Summer Solstice!

In honor of the first day of summer, I thought I'd share a little garden update with you. I'll have to be honest... Chris and I are probably the worst gardeners ever. After the initial excitement of planting our own garden, things slowed down a bit. Every couple of days or so, we would check on the garden's progress, mumble something about needing to weed, and wander back inside.

Last weekend, we finally got out to the garden for some much-needed tilling, weeding, and watering. It took two days of work and my knees suffered, but I'm glad we finally got out there. For some reason (frost, perhaps?) our cucumber and watermelon seeds never sprouted, so I replanted them... hopefully the land isn't cursed and we see some sprouts soon. Other than that, our little garden is doing surprisingly well.

The sugar snap peas are probably my favorite plant so far -- their flowers are so pretty and I can't wait till the peas are ripe and plump!

Hello, baby Roma tomatoes. These are Christopher's favorite. Our first tomato plants took a frost-beating about two weeks after planting. We planted two more to be on the safe side, but the original plants survived. Looks like I'll be making lots of bruschetta this season...

I told you I love these pea plants! Look at those little curlies. Cute, cute.

The mulberry trees by the river are also starting to ripen. Chris and his family don't particularly seem to care for the berries' flavor and woody stalks, but I like them. I'm wondering if I can find a use for them that everyone can enjoy. Some sort of pie or cobbler? Mulberry jam? Mulberry-orange muffins?

Our yellow squash and zucchini plants are doing well (from what I can tell, at least) and the green onion bulbs we transplanted have firmly taken root. The cilantro plants are healthy but sparse -- from the packet of 20+ seeds, only 5 tiny plants have sprouted. My guess is that we buried them too deep. From what I can tell, though, cilantro plants grow up and out. Hopefully we'll have plenty for summer guacamole and other Mexican-inspired dinners.

If you can, get outside and enjoy the longest day of the year. Southern Michigan has thunder storms in the forecast, but Chris and I are hoping that the rain holds off until after dinner... grilled burgers and corn on the cob. I love summer.

Wish List: Avant Garden

A few weekends ago, Chris and I decided to plant our own garden for summer. Roma and cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, green onion, cilantro, cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, watermelon... it's a small plot but has everything needed for delicious, summery meals. I've also got my eye on a few blueberry bushes to frame out the back end of the plot with a little something sweet.

My cute husband planting seeds -- I love him so much!

So far, the garden just sits there, so I can't say it has been a fun or stressful venture. Little green sprouts have just started to peek up, and soon we will be weeding, watering, and tending to the young plants as they grow. It's funny, I've always admired my mother's garden, and I could list off the names of dozens of flower and tree species, but I've never had the desire to garden until now. Perhaps it's just one of those things that develops with age... now that I'm married and living in a house of my own, I find myself reading more about landscaping, gardening, and the like. Which is exactly what inspired this week's Wish List...

1. The weathered, graphic numbers of this zinc thermometer from Terrain are wonderful and would be easy to read from a distance.  2. A pretty bow adorns ModCloth's Fun in the Sun hat.  3. The lines of these herbery stakes from Anthropologie are perfectly understated, and the white porcelain would really pop in a green garden.  4. As much as I love it, I couldn't spend $48 galvanized steel watering can. With a quick search on Etsy or eBay, though, you could stencil a number on a vintage can for a cheap & easy DIY project.  5. West Elm's recycled glass lanterns would be so pretty strung along a fence.  6. The My Garden five year garden planner would be an interesting keepsake once filled, and that cover design is gorgeous. 7. Grow Great Grub also seems like a pretty useful garden-to-dinner table book, complete with organic pest control and fresh-picked recipes. 

Have you ever gardened before/do you have any tips to share? Chris and I are pretty much learning as we go along, which is part of the fun, but I hope we actually have plants to harvest -- we've already had to replace the tomato plants because of frost. I can't wait to be able to pluck something straight of the vine and make dinner with it later that day... fingers crossed.