While the Cat's Away . . . .

 . . . and by cat I of course mean my husband.

I was off work on Friday and Chris was not, so I took the opportunity to expand one of my flowerbeds. Ok, for the sake of full disclosure I've been talking about doing this for about a year, so I was maybe not so sneaky about it. Still, I felt a bit scandalous killing his beautiful grass with mulch while he wasn't there to object, groan, whine, etc.

I was so excited about the task at hand that I completely forgot to take a before photo, but to be honest you're not missing much. When we moved in the flowerbed ran a straight line about 15" out from the house, which left not nearly enough space for interesting or dramatic planting. So I dug the border bricks out and moved them.

And somehow when I moved the bricks from the straight line to this wide-arcing curvy line, all the while worrying about where I would find additional bricks to make up for the larger space I was covering, I ended up using three fewer bricks than the original configuration! We're calling them the Hannukah bricks. It's basically a miracle.

So, at this point I've move the bricks (and boy are my arms/legs/back sore), smothered the grass with mulch and planted the following:

1 sky pencil holly. This guy will grow in a great vertical column, approximately 2 feet wide and 8-10 feet tall when it's all said and done. It is a rather delicate plant, so it will require a lot of attention at first and it may look worse for the wear for a year or two while it gets established. Hopefully, though, if all goes well it will start springing up soon and give a nice vertical accent to the corner.

1 yellow twig dogwood. I usually think as dogwoods as the flowering trees, but this little shrub is a small-growing garden accent. It will flower like the trees, and then in the winter when the greenery dies back it will display bright yellow/orange branches. It should get no taller than about three feet though.

and a few perennials. I also placed an order at a good cheap online retailer I've used a few times before for a rose bush and a few additional perennials and prairie grasses to begin filling in my new space.

Over the next month or so I'll keep on planting. My hope is that by the end of the summer, when you approach our house from the south, you'll be greeted by a lush flowering little oasis. That's not to much to ask, is it?

And speaking of oasis, spring has officially begun to bloom at our house. In addition to crocus, we have daffodils and hyacinth blooming, as well as buds and sprouts all over. And . . . I spent today prepping the veggie beds for planting. I should hopefully have more to report on that tomorrow.