Monday, February 24, 2014

Getting The Garden Ready For Spring and Buttermilk Pie

This weekend we decided to spiffy up the yard and start getting it ready for Spring.

This Chinese Fringe plant has already decided to bloom.

loropetalum

Aren't these berries on the Nandina pretty?


My Carolina Jasmine is on its way to blooming...


I love these little yellow flowers. You can see the ivy has started to take over the Carolina Jasmine trellis. I'll show you what we did about that in a minute. 


I started with something easy like cleaning the coffee table on the patio.


Then we quickly moved on to pruning the crepe myrtles, roses, etc. Those are roses along the fence. Pretty soon, they'll be blooming and full of leaves.


This was by far the most difficult thing we did. We decided to get rid of the ivy along the fence. This started out as just a few tiny ivy plants that I had inside. They wouldn't grow inside, so we decided to try and see if they would grow outside. Boy, did they ever! It was like Kudzu. That stuff did not want to let go of the fence. Below is the "before" pic.


And here it is about an hour and a half later...


I think we'll like this a lot better. That ivy had overstayed its welcome. :)

I was surprised my patio plants did so well throughout the winter. I didn't do anything but water them (when I remembered) The Dianthus and Snapdragons actually did pretty well. 


The snaps are even getting ready to bloom again. 


I brought out the patio pillows again. I finally learned to put them up when we're not using them. It makes them last a lot longer and they don't get faded from the sun as much. My hubby built a shelf in the garage to store them on.






While I was messing with the pillows, hubby cleaned out the fountains and bird baths.


The last thing we did was to apply Preen Weed Preventer on top of all the mulch. I've talked about this before HERE, but if you're new to my blog, you might have missed it. 


I love this stuff! I put it down every 3-4 months year round and never have to pull weeds. It really works!

Just a couple more things...Have you been on pins and needles wondering where I put all those IKEA look a like planters I got at the Dollar Spot??? :) Ha! Well, here they are. I put one on the mantle...


One on an end table in the living room...


This one ended up in the dining room with some tulips in it...


This one is holding my tea bags in the kitchen...


And this one is on top of the armoire in my bedroom. I'll be revealing our master bedroom makeover really soon. :)



And last but not least, after hearing Stacey talk about a buttermilk pie, I just had to make my own. :)




Do y'all like buttermilk pie? I'll be back Wednesday to share a fantastic sweet pork recipe along with some recipes for lime cilantro rice and Chile Verde Dressing. Yum!

Y'all have a great day!

~Lisa




8 comments:

  1. We've been working on our yard too. Still need to go out and trim all the rose bushes before they take over! We planted jasmine last year and it grew so much - I know we'll have lots of blooms soon. :)

    So glad you made pie...that always makes for a nice weekend. It's so old fashioned and good.

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  2. Your lucky to be starting on your garden early Lisa, here it's still a bit cold for that ( but even if it was warm enough, I have a black thumb for gardening anyways), I do love seeing all the beauties start blooming in spring, it's just my fave! Glad you got those great finds to good use! And that pie, mmmmm, makes me want to try some now!

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  3. I have never used Preen! You put it right on top of the mulch? I can't even imagine that you have things growing there. We won't have anything blooming until towards the end of April...maybe even into May. We can't plant anything outside until AFTER Memorial Day.

    Love those sweet little planter things you picked up at Target. I could not find them at our Target. xo Diana

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  4. Gosh your backyard is already looking good! We still have brown grass and bare trees around my house. The bush that you called Chinese Fringe looks like some that we have too. Ours are called Razzleberry bushes. I wonder if they're actually the same bush. That pie looks good. I've never had buttermilk pie before.

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  5. Everything looks so pretty! You're so lucky to have some blooms this early. Have to wait awhile here...high in the low 40's tomorrow. Just takes a bit to get past the last freeze.

    LOVE buttermilk pie! It's high on the "comfort food" list. My step-mother's mother used to make them often, along with many others. I was amazed one time when at her house...she had baked 6 pies! Not a holiday either ~ :) I was in heaven!

    xo
    Pat

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  6. You are one busy girl, Lisa! Inside and out! I love all of your blooming plants, it make me so psyched up for winter. I have lots of ivy, too, and I know how hard it is to trim and keep neat, I can't imagine removing it! I like your patio, too. It looks like the perfect place to have your coffee or tea in the morning or a glass of wine at night. I'm so looking forward to spring!!

    The pie looks delicious! It would be gone in a minute here! :)

    XO,
    Jane

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  7. We may both live in the one of the few states that is actually having Spring weather, and I am so grateful we don't have to shovel the white stuff. It definitely looks like Spring is springing in your yard! I really like the black and white pillows with your green cushions. Funny, because I have some black and white pillows from our original bedroom makeover and was thinking about using them on the patio. I just love black and white accents. Would you believe that this Southern girl has never had Buttermilk Pie? It looks delicious!

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  8. You really have things blooming in Texas?! How wonderful is that! We still have snow on the ground here in Iowa and probably will have for several weeks to come. You are extremely blessed!!

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