Epcot Part 1

This weekend, me and my family went Epcot for their Flower and Garden Show.

One of the highlights was seeing Ellen Zachos from Down & Dirty Gardening speak.

She was demonstrating how to make a dinosaur garden for little gardeners. Ellen gave my daughter a dinosaur toy and she's slept with it the last two nights. I guess I'm going to have make my own dinosaur garden now! I've forgotten most of her suggestions, (Did I mention it was a long day?) but one plant really did stand out: the Alocasia Stingray. Cool, huh?

We also met this lady, who did not want to be photographed . . .

But she gave us lady bugs to release into the garden.

That is my husband's hand. My daughter was too scared. In fact, I had now idea that Epcot was such a scary place. Between the bugs in boxes to the grown adults dressed up like animals wanting to randomly hug small children, I thought my girl was going to have a full on breakdown.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

My monster is not half bad. He got me tickets to Epcot to see the Flower and Garden Festival!!!! Wa-hooo!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be sure to post the details on Sunday!

Happy Easter

Did you find all of your eggs today?

Get Your Nominations In!!

It is nomination time at Mouse and Trowel!!! Go there to nominate your favorite garden blogs.

Too tired tonight after a long day to post much, but are some pretty blooms in the yard today.

Ruellia

Pink Salvia

Online Inspiration

I shamelessly stole this picture from Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden. If anyone from there reads this, please don't sue me - I'm providing free advertising!! Any way, in my search for tropical gardens online, I came across this one and thought - This is what I need to do in the corner garden!!!! Instead of an island like I had previously planned, I could go around and create a niche seating area, which I really want. Someday, maybe. I guess I'll have to start re-working some beds and planting some birds of paradise.

Update of the Front Garden

Well, I'm due for some updates. I hate to show the garden right now, as it is less than stellar. But I'd like a reminder next year if March that it does eventually get better.

The iris is pretty though.

Update of the Shed Garden

Oh, how I miss the better days of the shed garden. It is looking a little barren.

And WTF are these on my ginger?!?!?!

Fortunately, there new sprouts of hope amongst the despair.

Update of the Butterfly Garden

The butterfly garden has perked up.

Yellow Snapdragons

Happy looking salvia.

Even the lilies have come up.

Pool Garden Update

Not much going on in the pool garden - I have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks. But look! No green pool! My monster fixed the pump. Yaaaahhh!!!!

Update of the Corner Garden

The shell ginger and the crinum lilies weren't effect by cold weather at all and they are thriving.

This area is full of freshly planted bulbs. I also want to add some more shell ginger.

Know Your Frost Date

Today I went to my February posts last year, trying to figure out what was going on in the garden last year. To my surprise, there weren't any. After a frost in January, I didn't post again until late April. It is understandable. Even though it is 80 degrees out, it is still very much winter and a frost is just a day away. Last year I was smart enough to know this. This year, my impatience for a beautiful garden got the best of me and I planted many plants way too early. Now I’m a big bundle of stress, worrying about my babies. Urrggh. This week we were hit by the same weather system that hit most of the country and we’ve had three solid days of rain. Tonight there will be yet another freeze. I couldn’t live up north, this is killing me. I don’t know how I’ll wait until the end of this month, my last frost date. If you are interested in your last frost date, this is a good site: http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/