Camera Withdrawal

I'm joining up at Bloomin Tuesday on Jean's Blog today. Unfortunately I was unable to get current bloom pics for this week's posting. Between my M.I.A. camera and the wild weather (tornado warning, possible touchdown in our town, several inches of water - pool almost overflowing (but no hail! Thank goodness for that), there was no chance of picture opportunities.

My camera is missing (or should I say that I am missing my camera).  I shippped it out FedEx Overnight last Monday to the Canon Service Factory in Elk Grove Village, IL in the hopes that because I shipped it fast that they would repair it fast and then send it right back to me so I wouldn't miss a week of taking pictures of my garden for my garden progress diary/blog. 

Yeah, that so didn't happen.  I have called twice.  It is now a week since I shipped my camera and they haven't even logged my camera into their database, meaning that it is still sitting in their receiving room, unopened, untouched, unloved. 

To allleviate my pain, I squeezed in some impulsive plant shopping during my lunch break.  Even though I already surpassed my 'plant budget', oh - let's see.... by February, I continue to buy.  (Hey, the garden is looking sparse of blooms so I consider this an emergency!)   Most of my purchases are pink because there is so much yellow blooming right now, I am a bit yellowed-out.   Here's my list:

• Phlox 'Nora Leigh' (pink flowers with variegated leaves)
• Phlox 'Laura'  (for my step-daughter Laura)
• Phlox 'Bright Eyes'
• Echincacea Big Sky Sundown
• Pentas 'Graffiiti Pink' (an annual - have never heard of it but it was pink and pretty with beautiful foliage so in the basket it went)

If anyone has any tidbits of info / experience with any of these, I would love to hear any feedback on any or all.  I am a little mad at myself that I didn't grab two Phlox 'Nicky' (for my step-son and nephew Nick / Nicky).  There's always tomorrow's lunch break.   Now all I need is a plant named 'Chelsea' for my daughter.  Anyone know of one?

Because I can't show what's blooming this week, I will resort to a few Before / After shots.

This is 'before' in 2007, the year we put in the 'Side Garden'.  You can also see that the 'Side Yard' was a disaster area.  There was a pile of soil in one corner and a pile of leftover gravel from the pool in the middle.  We dug out all the gravel, spread most of the soil and brought in a truckload of good soil for the raised bed.  There is so much crap going on, you can't even tell we planted a garden :

This is last year after we finally finished spreading that damn pile of soil and filled in the GINORMOUS ruts that the propane guy left in our yard (Thanks a lot, buddy.  Could I get your home address so I can do some donuts on your front lawn with my car?):

Three years later and we have learned (and grown) so much. (side note: notice the size of Geranium Rozanne inside pool fence last year vs this year):

This is the back yard, one year after the 'Side Garden' was planted (2008) and then this year.  This was also pre-edging and pre-mulching.  The 'After' picture isn't the best, but it's the only one I could find from the same angle:

And one last view, don't want to overdo it:

2009.............

To end the 'Tour 'o The Past' here's a picture from last year of these cool spiders we had all over our yard (and I don't like spiders).  They could turn color - if they were on white flowers, they were white.  If they were on yellow flowers, they were yellow.  I haven't seen any this year - I was actually disappointed: