The Peonies Are Blooming!

Peonies are some of my favorite flowers!

When I was younger, we had eight giant peony bushes in my yard. The first plant I ever got for my yard when I got married was a beautiful magenta peony.

Originally, my goal for my current yard was to recreate the peony garden of my youth. We had magenta, light pink, white, and a medium pink. I loved them so much that I wanted that exact set up. I actually had no idea there were so many different colors and kinds of peonies until I started looking around the home and garden stores.

My peony garden goals have changed a bit since I went out into the world and discovered that there are so many colors of peonies. I still want those same four original peonies, but I've found a lot more to add to the mix!

Currently, I have five different peony bushes going strong and one root that I just planted a few weeks ago. Peonies planted from root take about three years to mature and bloom. The last peony root that I bought did not turn out as planned and I am still a little bitter about it! 

The picture on the package was of a beautiful red Karl Rosenfield Peony. I waited three years for that peony to bloom. When it finally did last year, it was a hot pink Bowl of Beauty Peony (I think!) I really wanted a red peony! Talk about a let down! Understandably, I am a little leery of buying plants from root now! It is still a beautiful flower, so I am slowly learning to love it. I just wish it was red. 

I did decide to take another chance on a peony root this year when I saw a brand new coral colored peony at Lowe's. I really, really hope that it turns out to be what the photo advertised! It was so beautiful, I couldn't help it!

 In addition to my magenta and "Bowl of Beauty," I have an awesome yellow peony blooming right now called a Bartzella. I can't help but wonder if it was named after Bart Simpson!

Last year, I rescued a peony from one of our job sites. It was growing right where the house was going to be set and the construction guys would have just killed it. So of course, I had to rescue it and take it home with me! We didn't have a shovel and all I could find was a screwdriver to dig it out of the ground with. I was worried that I didn't get enough of the root, but I must have because it is in it's second year now and growing taller and stronger everyday! I think it will bloom next year and I can't wait to see what color and kind it will be!

I've run out of room for any more peonies in my two little backyard garden areas and I am already planning a new garden so that I can plant even more! For now though, I am enjoying the ones that I have!

This was the first peony that I planted. My husband actually bought it for me because he knew I had been obsessing over this particular color. It's grown a lot over the past few years and gets more and more blooms every year!

It is so gorgeous! This color is my favorite. It's one of the ones I had in my yard growing up.

Here's a bud getting ready to pop! It's so amazing to me that such a giant flower starts out like this!

I would really love to cut these off and put them in a vase in my house, but I have a hard time doing so. They just look so pretty outside, I don't even want to take one bloom away! I'm sure I wouldn't even miss it, because there really are a lot this year. This peony is about six or seven years old now.

The possible Bowl of Beauty Peony. I'm just going to call it that unless I find out otherwise!

Closed up tight! Look at all the ants trying to drink the sap off it. There's some debate on whether or not the ants aid in the opening of the peonies or they are just there for the sweetness.

Although not what I expected, I really do love the color of this peony when it first opens. The color fades to a lighter pink fairly quickly after opening. In fact, peonies are very short lived. I try to water them as much as possible (from the bottom, not the top!) in order to prolong the bloom period.

View from the top!

This is the fourth year for this peony and I am growing to love it more!

Here's a little toad that was sunning itself in the peony garden. I was weeding it and almost didn't see him, he blends in so well!

The view from the deck! I wish this would stay like this all summer!

In between my magenta peony and the possible Bowl Of Beauty lies my rescued peony! It has done exceptionally well considering I cut it out of the ground with a screwdriver and hoped for the best! This is it's second year of being in my yard, so I am hoping it will bloom next year. I'm also hoping that it will be either a medium pink or white peony.

This is my pride and joy ~ a yellow Bartzella Peony. I got it on clearance at Meijers two years ago and it has bloomed every year since!

It's not everyday you see a yellow peony! I love the orange in the middle of it. It looks so tropical! The leaves are different from most other peonies too.

Last year, there was only one bloom on this plant and it only lasted one day! I have five blooms this year and they are lasting a bit longer, I think because of the rain.

My newest peony garden! It started with me just plopping down the yellow one two years ago and then last year I made it into an actual garden by adding a brick border. I also added another peony last year next to the Bartzella. It is a light pink Sarah Bernhardt peony. It's only in it's second year, so it should bloom next year! On the very right end I just planted my newest peony from a root.

 I really hope it comes up! It's been two weeks and so far nothing. It's making me very nervous! After the last peony root fiasco, I swore off buying them from roots ever again, but then I saw this gorgeous Coral Sunset Peony at Lowe's and I just had to try it! It's a brand new kind! I guess I'll see in three years if it's the right color this time!

The Bartzella and the little Sarah Bernhardt!

Planting the garden!

For once, I finally got my garden in on time!

Last weekend we rented a tiller and got to work. In Northern Indiana, you're supposed to wait until Mother's Day to plant any type of vegetable garden or flowers. Mother's Day is supposedly the last time it will frost here, although, back in the 1960's it did frost at the very end of May. Let's hope that never happens again! 

Normally, I don't seem to be able to get my garden in until June or even July, so I am super psyched that I can look forward to a long and hopefully, productive growing season.

Last year, my vegetable garden did not do well at all. For starters, I tried to save money and hand tilled it. Big mistake! It took forever and was so difficult. My soil is full of clay so it was almost impossible to do it by hand and do a good job. I even got a Ganglion cyst on my hand from it! 

As a result, the garden ended up being about half the size as normal, which meant my veggies were super crowded. It also got really weedy and I was unable to weed it properly since it was so crowded. My pickles barely grew and even my sunflowers didn't really do that well. We almost decided not to even put in a garden this year, but...I just had to!

I've actually had my "vegetable" garden planned out since January! The second those seed packets start showing up in the stores my mind starts churning! As of right now, I am only doing a few things. Most everything I'm doing is very viney, so it will have a lot of room to spread out!  

I love pumpkins and I found some cute mini harvest pumpkin seeds so I had to plant those. I seem to have better luck with the mini pumpkins as opposed to the jack-o-lantern size. My husband wanted to give honey dew and cantaloupe a try too, and of course, I had to plant some sunflowers! 

You never know though, I still may add to it if I find just the right thing!

This was the garden before we started. You can't even tell where it was last year! It gets taken over by grass and weeds so quickly!

This tiller made quick work for my husband! I had planned on being the one that did the tilling, but it was so heavy and impossible for me to handle. So, ladies, you may need to get some help tilling your garden if you're a wimp like me!

After tilling the garden with the tiller, I went over it with a garden rake to get anything that was missed. Anything that looked like it had a root structure got ripped out! I'm not going to use any chemical weed preventer this year due to the fact that I noticed the one I had used previously states that it causes cancer. Uh, no thank you! I'm going to be researching some alternatives! I know it looks super shady right now, but this garden actually gets full sun in the afternoon.

This stuff is the bane of my existence. I have no idea what it is, but if anyone out there does or knows how to eradicate it, let me know! It's all over my yard and it's always trying to take over my gardens.

All ready for planting! I'm going to wait until I see sprouts to put up my fence.

I'm really hoping these work out this year ~ especially my pumpkins! It's so gratifying to grow your own garden! Give it a try!

New carpet, bedskirt, and curtains oh my!

The great master bedroom makeover continues! Finally, after almost seven years we have new carpet!

You would not believe the difference it makes! The old green carpet is gone and in it's place is a magnificent medium grey color called "Ink Spot."

I also picked up a new bed skirt. The bed just looked unfinished without one. You could see the supports underneath and some of my junk I had under there. Now it's all hidden and looks much more polished. 

I had originally been thinking about making my own bedskirt. I had seen so many cute ones on Pinterest, but in the end I bought a cheap, yet classy looking grey cotton one from Walmart. I mean, does a tulle bedskirt really belong on the bed of an adult married couple? I think not. I'll save that for if we ever have a little girl!

We also got a new comforter for our bed, but I have been waiting until I found the perfect curtains to match in order to bust it out. I just picked up some curtains from Pier 1 Imports and I'm still trying to decide if they are the ones. I think they might be!

  My master bedroom is definitely getting more glamorous every step of the way! Hopefully, I'll be able to do a full room reveal soon! Check out my blog archives or use the search function if you've missed any of my previous bedroom updates!

And don't forget to follow along with my daily adventures on Instagram @ sweethome.indiana!

The old icky green carpet. This carpet had definitely seen better days! There was a giant purplish stain (thankfully, mostly hidden under my bed) from when we painted our room last time and my husband knocked over the can of paint. Oops. That's why we painted before we got new carpet!

Here it is! Ink spot! I'm banning all shoes on this carpet from here on out! It looks so glorious!

It looks really good with the Solitary State grey paint.

Here's my bed without it's skirt on. It really needed something!

This bedskirt is exactly what I wanted. Plain, unassuming, and classic.

This looks much better!

These are Grey Moorish Tile Curtains from Pier 1. I love them! I am pretty sure I am going to keep them. They are pretty much everything I have been looking for in a curtain!

I was really hoping they worked because after I took them out the package there was no way I was getting them back in.

Of course, I had to get out my new comforter to see how it went with everything. I Love it!!! I can't wait to put the finishing touches on the room!

Stay tuned for the final reveal!

My Spring Backyard!

Although it's beginning to fade now, this was my backyard in all it's full Spring glory a couple weeks ago!

I love Spring, but it never seems to last very long! It's such an odd season here in northern Indiana. Some days can be warm and downright balmy and the next day it snows and freezes all your flowers. 

I just try to enjoy Spring as much as possible while it's around! Every time I look out my window and see my creekside garden and all it's beautiful colors, it just makes me so happy! 

My yard is truly my happy place!

This is my beloved creekside garden! Right now, this end of the garden is a bit of everything Spring from the muscari border to the mixed daffodils to hyacinths. There's even a mum starting to sprout in there somewhere! My plan is to keep it a bit of everything and add some tulips and more mums to it this fall. For Summer, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet!

It took me two years to plant this muscari border! I am so glad it's finally done and looking good! Muscari are some of my favorite flowers and I love them as a border. They multiply so quickly that a lot of people don't use them for borders, but I do! The more the merrier, I say!

I love these double yellow daffodils that I planted last fall. These were from a mixed bag of daffodils so I wasn't sure what I was going to get. I am a little disappointed with how they all turned out. There were only about two different kinds in the bag ~ these, and some that had about four teeny tiny flowers on each stem. They were pretty, don't get me wrong, but not quite what the picture promised.

This fall, my goal is to plant tons of plain yellow daffodils at this end a la Martha Stewart! I want it to look like the field of daffodils I visited in Ireland!

My favorite tree in my yard! I think it's a redbud. I am hoping to find another cheap one to plant at the other end of my garden.

Here's my mama bird poking her head out of her house! I've yet to have any bluebirds nest in this bluebird house, just sparrows. But, I love all birds and I am not going to be kicking any out just because they aren't blue. I'm happy that someone is making a home there!

I love all these tiny purple flowers that appear all over my lawn every year!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the yard, my lilacs are finally blooming! About 4-5 years ago, my husband brought home three little sticks that he got from a client of his. They were three different colors of lilacs. They have grown like crazy, but this was the first year we've gotten any blooms and I am so happy! I love lilacs!

Here are the white ones just getting ready to bloom. As of right now, my purple ones have faded away, but these white ones are still going strong! I love their smell!

Here's one of the yellow finches that like to hang out in my yard! They are so pretty!

Happy Spring!

My Tulips!

After my post about the Foster Park tulips, this one will probably be a let down! But don't worry! My yard will get there one day!!!

I love tulips! I only have a few around my yard, but my goal is to plant as many as possible every year until my yard resembles Foster Park. Yard goals! Hey, they say to dream big! 

It may take a while to get there, but that's okay! I love a challenge!

Here's what I've been able to do so far!

I was inspired to plant these colors together after my friend got a bouquet of light pink, purple, and white tulips. They were some of the prettiest flowers I had ever seen and I thought, "I could do that in my yard!" And here it is! Strangely enough only one of my white tulips has ever come back. The rest have disappeared!

I love these pink tulips! Here's what they looked like closed up.

And here they are fully opened! Gorgeous!

The lone white tulip. I am going to plant more of them this year. Hopefully.

My husband's family gives potted flowers every year for Easter. I started planting the tulips here after the flowers faded. Most of them have returned! It's not much to look at right now, but it's just a little pop of color along my creek and I love it! My tulip plot grows more every year. The dead ones in the middle are my Valentine's Day flowers from this year. They were forced in water so I am not sure if they will come back or not, but I'm going to give it a try!

These were the original tulips along my creek. When I moved in these were here all by themselves and I just loved them. They gave me the idea to start planting all my tulips here, so thank you whoever planted these here along my creek all those years ago in this obscure spot!

Sunny yellow!

Pretty purple!

I almost can't wait for Fall so I can get started on next year! 

Stay tuned!