In the garden again

I was out of town for part of the weekend, but got home early enough to try to finish up some of the planting. With the weather getting colder and more frosts, I'm really getting to the do or die point with getting things in the ground.

Stopped at Home Depot on my way home to buy a pair of loppers to take care of some of the catalpa saplings I want GONE from my yard. Of course, had to look at what else they had and ended up buying a 1 gallon Pink Ruffles azalea for $1.97 and a little pot of vinca minor for $1.75.

When I got home I got the tea olive planted in the shrub border then worked on getting the three hostas in the ground. The stilletto hosta is over near the fence line nandina, one that starts with a C in by the AC and the other one (??- lost it's tag) is by the water heater.

I did get a bit of a surprise when I was working with the loppers trying to make a place for the azalea and get rid of some of the saplings. I did a little trimming on my back neighbor's tree that is hanging into my yard and discovered what sure looks like a camellia along the back fenceline. It doesn't have any buds yet, so I'm not totally sure what it is. Also found several other suspected camellias over by the shack. Nice to see that possibly not everything in the yard is junk. I also decided that I would not try to do too much work behind the shack until it is torn down. The area is pretty overgrown, but there are some vines and a few other things back there that might be worth saving. Also there has been poison ivy in the area, so I really want to be careful. And, having found some vines that might be worth saving, as well as several shrubs that might be good, I will need to watch that area and see what does what over the spring and summer so I can decide what stays and what goes.

All the catalpa saplings I can lop DO GO though! I want that crap out of my yard! And will some of them gone, you can see that good stuff in my yard much better. I may try a little more "tree work" on my back neighbor's tree later this year... it is getting in my hair when I try to work with the 3 Tom camellias.

While I was gone this weekend, mom did some more rearranging in the kitchen and also hung some artwork in both her room and the dining room. She also got started on the long delayed project of painting the bathroom. Some day we will finish...

I ended up putting what will at least be the first coat of Torchlight paint on the fireplace surround. It now really blends into the wall and once the TV is back in place, you will hardly be able to see the bricked in part of the fireplace.