Spring Garden Tour

Spring is finally here!

It's a toss up between Spring and Fall for my favorite season, but I have to say, Spring may just be winning. With all it's gorgeous flowers and budding trees, it's almost no contest for a flower lover such as myself. 

Every year, I add more and more plants and flowers to my gardens for each different season. Tulips and Daffodils are often the most thought of flowers for Spring, but I've discovered that there are so many more Spring blooming flowers out there! I like to add different and new items whenever I come across them and I am very happy to report that every new bulb and plant that I put in last year has come back!

Spring came very late this year to northern Indiana and all my flowers bloomed much later than in previous seasons. I was hoping that maybe, just maybe, the bloom season would be prolonged somehow, but sadly, most of my Spring flowers are already on their way out. 

I have to say that my gardens are really rockin so far this year and I am already making plans for what to add next year! The most wonderful time of the year has begun!

New favorite flower alert! Crocuses are some of the first blooms in Spring and these tiny little flowers are actually perfect to plant in your yard since they will be gone by the first mowing. I got a small bag of them last Fall as an experiment and I will definitely be planting more in my yard and in my flower gardens next year!

I've seen yellow, white, and purple crocuses and mine were either purple or white. I love these purple ones with the white striations!

Above is my creekside garden in all it's Spring glory! My favorite thing about it is the border of purplish-blue Muscari. This is my favorite spot in my whole yard. When I moved in, it was just an overgrown eyesore filled with poison ivy. I had to work very hard to get it into shape for a garden and I am very proud of it!

Muscari make perfect garden borders and they multiply like crazy every year, so it only gets better and better!

Last year I planted a mix of Tulips that I got for free, not knowing what color they would be. I was hoping for red and luckily, most of them were! They look awesome next to the yellow Daffodils and blue Muscari.

These tiny little Daffodils came from a mix bag and I have never seen anything else like it. They are tall like regular Daffodils, but have several small clusters of flowers on them. They are very unique and I am glad they are in my garden. That's the thing with a mixed bag, you never know what you're going to get!

I think the best smelling flower may be the Hyacinth. Get around a group of them and it's absolute heaven! I am going to make it a focus to plant more this Fall. Possibly as a border somewhere. I wish I could find this exact color of purple again, it's the only one I've seen and it's much brighter than others.

Inspired by Foster Park here in Fort Wayne, it's been my goal to plant as many different kinds of Tulips in my yard as possible. I love these new orange ones that I planted last Fall and the different color variations on them.

These Lilac bushes literally began as sticks from someone else's yard. Lilacs are very easy to transplant, but they take a while until they bloom. This is the first year that all three have bloomed and I was even able to harvest a few branches to bring inside and put in a vase!

I was asked if they all have different smells and they do! The dark purple ones smell a little fruity to me and the white have a spicy smell. 

Funny thing about this tulip bed. I started it three years ago as a white, purple, and pink bed. My friend had gotten a Tulip bouquet of those colors and it was so pretty. Last year only one white Tulip came back, which I later found out that for some reason, white Tulips are notorious for not coming back like other colors. So I planted more white ones. This year, only one pink Tulip showed up to the party! I guess I'll be planting more pink ones this year! And probably some more white too, just in case!

I'm totally one of those people who can't seem to bring myself to cut my flowers and bring them inside. They just look so pretty in their natural element! But I desperately do want to one day be able to! This is my sole Daffodil, an Ice Follies, that I brought in this year and I only did it to save it because it had gotten cut off somehow. I am planning on starting some sort of a cutting garden so that I can have gorgeous floral arrangements in my home too one day!

I will wrap up the tour with my apple tree that finally blossomed this year for the first time! I am hoping to be eating some delicious Gala Apples from this tree in the Fall, but even if that doesn't happen, these blooms made it all worth it!


Thanks for stopping by and follow me on Instagram @ sweethome.indiana for daily updates on my flower gardens and all other things home!



Next up, Summer here we come!

Spring Window Box

The weather has finally gotten to the point where I can work outside and even plant a few flowers! Flowers are my most favorite things in the world and I could not wait to get planting after this long winter!

Here in northern Indiana, the rule of thumb for planting flowers (or even a garden) is nothing goes in until Mother's Day weekend. It's just not safe to plant prior to the middle of May around here. If it frosts, your flowers will die. Some flowers, such as Pansies and Violas, are fairly cold hardy and are safe to plant sooner. 

I once read that Pansies are hardy to about twenty-six degrees and then they stop flowering. There have been a few close calls, with a couple more to come. But, so far, they are looking good and growing already! Pansies come in several different colors and I chose an awesome mix this year for my window box garden!

I also went the extra mile this year and got some Miracle Grow Potting Soil. I want to see if it really makes a difference. It promises blooms twice as big, so we shall see. I'm always looking for ways to improve my gardening game!

The orange Pansies were a must and that's what I built the rest of the colors around.

I love bright, bold colors, but I felt it needed to be a little grounded so I added just one maroon Pansy and put it right in the middle. I simply alternated the rest of the colors on either side. I didn't pack the window box completely full because I wanted to give the flowers room to grow and breathe!

This Pansy mix is so pretty, I may just leave it up all Summer! It would even look very nice all the way into Fall, but let's not get ahead of ourselves!

Don't forget, you can follow me on Instagram @ sweethome.indiana!

Spring This Year Vs. Last Year

It's that time of the year when I am just dying to get outside and work in my yard! Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating how I'd like.

This year, winter has felt like it's gone on forever and ever! With barely a decent day in months, my flowers are all way behind last year's schedule. Only last week has my little crop of Ice Follies Daffodils started to open. Many of my other Daffodils are even still waiting to get their buds and my newest batch that I planted in my creekside garden last Fall are just barely pushing through.

There are a few bright spots in these gray days and the first is that my Coral Sunset Peony that I planted last Summer from a root is growing! I had written it off since there was absolutely no activity with it all last year. This will mark year one and with any luck, in two more years I will have some gorgeous coral Peonies blooming! It usually takes about three years for plants planted from root to bloom. That also means that I am expecting my two other newest peonies to bloom this year!

Also, my favorite place to buy flowers, Main's Flower Gardens, opened last Saturday! I look forward to opening day every year because that means nice weather is here! Or, in this year's case, it's on it's way! I have yet to make it there this year though because the weather has been so bad!

The forecast for next week looks promising, so here's hoping! I am very anxiously awaiting the true arrival of Spring around here!


This was my backyard at this time last year.....

This is my backyard this year on the same day! Quite the difference!

I am so looking forward to when all my flowers are in bloom again!

I guess that just means they will last longer into the season, right?

At least it looks like I am going to have a plethora of lilacs this year! If the frost doesn't get to them too badly!