My Hoe Day!

Well, my Hoe Day has come and gone, and it was a blast! As you can see, the side of the house we worked on needed it badly...














But, first things first. Food! Breakfast was the guest standy - breakfast pizza. Very hardy and filling. Of course, we also had the GardenHoe required alcohol - mimosas! Everyone was able to come except Nickie - we missed her, but we'll get her next time.

Then we went to work. The crepe myrtle on the left was dug out and turned into five new crepe myrtles (on purpose on accident). The new crepe myrtles were all planted by the pool in the back yard and the cannas that were dug out were moved to be planted at the back of the pond. We also dug out a dwarf nandina (also relocated to the pond) and some Easter Lily bulbs (to be relocated in the new bed). All the weeds were pulled (turns out Anna HATES weeds and makes it her life's work to get rid of them) and we moved some of the junk on the right side away from the house.

Next, we tilled up a wide area - maybe four feet wide from the side of the house all the way out. After tilling and raking off the chaff, we laid down compost and retilled the entire area. By then, it was lunchtime!

Lunch was good (if I do say so myself)...I tried out a few new recipes and made some old standards. We had teriyaki flank steak, honey-mustard chicked drummettes, broccoli salad, an AWESOME crab dip, chorizo and carmelized onion quiche-type-thing, and Mom's pound cake for dessert. Yum! I'll have to post the recipes in another post...

After lunch, Nancy and Anna had to go, and Heather and I did the easy stuff - planted some plants. We then decided that we had worked hard enough and went to Lowe's and Hill Country Water Gardens to shop. :-)

On Sunday, motivated by all the hard work (and my nagging), my DH and I finished the hardscapes stuff - added pavers bought off of Craigslist and a fence area around the pool equipment. I also found (over by the greenhouse!) more plants that I could plant, so I did. And here is the result...

Wow! What a difference! And just to let you know what plants went in...

Purple fall asters
Purple and white walking irises
Purple passionflower vine
Purple bat faced cuphea (I was SOOOO excited to find this...)
Purple salvia
Purple fountain grass
Purple scabiosas (pincushion)
Silver ponyfoot
Mounding plumbago (kind of looks lavender-ish)
White easter lilies
Japanese maple

Can you tell I had a purple theme? I can't wait to see what it will look like when it blooms. Thanks Hoes for my project! I love the side of my house now!

~Hoe Naomi