I get inspired easily. It doesn't take much for me to joyfully throw myself behind a new book, CD, hobby, etc. Sometimes this fervor lasts and turns into something I end up loving/doing for a long time...other times, catch me in a few days, and I'm already over it. My new inspiration for Spring is gardening. My husband and I have put mild effort into the outside of our house in the three years we've lived there. Some grass seed here, a hanging plant there. But we really haven't done much of what you'd call gardening. I'm talking digging holes, planting shrubs and bulbs, and nurturing them into something pretty. I tend to forget to water them, and I hear this is very important for plants. ;-) I have convinced myself that this year will be completely different. I'm treating it as a hobby - one that needs my daily attention. I am actually really excited to get my hands dirty, and be that girl that walks her yard, carefully eyeing every plant and picking any dead leaves off with lightening precision. I've ordered a few bulbs from an online site, and the hubs and I have found a few things we like at Home Depot. Here's the plan:

In my postage-stamp-size front yard, we'd like to plant rhododendron bushes along the house and hostas along the walkway. Our house is all white, so we thought this would be a nice splash of color. Plus we couldn't decide between flowers and bushes - this seemed like the perfect solution. The hostas are on their way - the rhododendrons still need to be purchased.

I have the perfect front porch for hanging baskets. The problem is, nothing tends to thrive in them. My house is in full sun most of the afternoon, which fries the front of the plants, and the backs don't get enough sun due to being under the porch roof. I told my mother-in-law that I should just get fake flowers to hang there. She looked at me as if I'd said I was going to hang dead rats from the porch. Oh well - it was a thought! Guess I'll just buy petunias again. :-P

Our back yard is another tricky spot for sun. Much of it is in the shade, either due to our house casting its shadow or to our neighbor's sprawling, messy box elder tree. I have a little area between our garage and our fence where I'm going to try to plant some blue hydrangea bulbs. Along our main fence, we currently have some little azalea bushes that are not growing any more (but I'm not sure they're dead, either - bizarre). I bought some pinky-purple lilac bushes, and I think I'll plant them in between the azaleas. Then along the back of our house, I'm planting my favorite flower ever, daisies. Finally, on the right side of our garage, we have the new and distinct pleasure of looking straight into the back yard that borders ours, thanks to an old tree that was chopped down. We're going to plant a few of those tall evergreen bushes to help obscure the view of Mr. Whoever roaming his yard in his skivvies.

Pretty ambitious all in all! I can't wait to get started. Wish me luck!