Stuff that makes me happy.

One year, I got a little overzealous with the pruning shears.

And maybe the saw.

And before I knew it, there wasn’t much tree left in front of the window. Which I was really hoping my husband wouldn’t notice since he might have asked me not to do that before he left on a business trip.

My brilliant idea to fill up this suddenly barren space was window boxes.

Probably it’s better to put some effort into planning and planting window boxes, but with just 2 days till my husband came home, I bought the only window boxes available, painted, hung and filled them. With about 30 minutes to spare.

If he noticed the missing tree limbs, he kept it to himself.

Later that season…

you could still see where I sawed the branches off, but gosh the window boxes filled in nicely.

It’s spring and I cannot think outside of the box. I am all about the box.

I go to the nursery and wander till something catches my eye. I check the growing requirements carefully: I am strictly low maintenance. No dead heading, no extra special care. And if it wants to live at my house, it better be ready to bloom all summer.

It should come as no surprise that three or four trips to the nursery and a bazillion dollars later, I might have an extra plant or two.

Today it was the lobelia, which is seriously close to being my new favorite flower.  She may let me down in the All Summer Long Department, but for now, she’s pretty awesome. I threw the extras into a basket and dropped it at the base of the old maple on the shady side of the house and snapped some photos to capture the delight I felt when the sunlight peeked through and danced over the basket.

I’m strictly an entry level gardener. I love playing in the dirt and the satisfaction when stuff I plant beats the odds and actually thrives. I love to watch as the plants grow from spindly starters to filling up and spilling over.  I try to take weekly pictures to chronicle their progress.

I get a little thrill when I come up the drive and see my window boxes. I see the basket of lobelia when I walk through my dining room, and from the top of my stairs, and it makes my heart sing.

And that makes me happy.