danny's front porch cactus garden is growing.

gone country.

i love packing for oregon. it's pretty simple. shorts. t-shirts. jeans. a hat. a swimsuit. don't out think it. less is more. danny caught me trying on "outfits" while packing and just stood in the bedroom looking at me like, "really?" to go fishing?" good point. here's a look inside our weekend on the applegate river. 

mom's chalkboard and welcome message.

the homestead.

mom showing us around the garden. my dad being annoying with his camera.

super cool wooden windmill.

mom's wheelbarrow succulent garden.

scrappy keeping an eye on things from upstairs.

a rose bed. get it? duh. bed of roses. duh.

fresh ollalaberries ripe on the vine and ready for pickin' and eatin'.

us cruising around the local grower's market with mom.

mom always gets our goat's milk soap from this vendor. we got to pick out our scents this time.

authentic oregon hippie tie dye & jewelry anyone?

downtown grants pass deli lunch.

fresh raspberry lemonade.

mom's finger lickin' good homemade cookin'

ribs. fresh corn on the cob. broccoli salad. strawberry surprise. potatoes. cheesy bread. yuuuum.

can't beat the view from the porch.

one of the best parts of the weekend was getting to meet scrappy for the first time. my parents recently took scrappy in. he's about five and had a rough life, but that's over. he's now scrappy schramm and we all love him. he's so good and so sweet. it was love at first sight for danny & me, and we'd totally adopt him. what i didn't catch on film is scrappy's smile. when he sees you first thing in the morning or after you've just come home, he smiles. its hard to describe, but he really pulls his lips back and grins with his teeth. makes you laugh and melts your heart all at the same time. p.s. nice hair ting.

 ting & mom with their beer in front of her garden's hops (say it like in superbad)!

 scrappy's the best fetch player. one paw up means he is ready to go.

aaaaannnddd he's off!

cruising around the front yard.

the local slice shop, dorman's pizza parlor... $2 PBR's and horseshoes. 

how does your garden grow?

my mom's garden grows peonies like this...



and this....

gorgeous, huh?

way to go mom!

i haven't been as dedicated to my front garden bed as i was last year - not at all.

but you better believe my house will be filled with peonies their whole season (just like last year).

like my mom, i love them.

but seriously what woman doesn't? they're perfect.

our little garden gnome.

i love seeing more and more of my friends jumping into the blog world.

the newest addition is miss lisa, the gnome-mad. 

the "about me" section on her blog explains it all perfectly...

i'm loving the concept of a hip blog about all things botanical and am majorly impressed with her gorgeous photos, layout and logo (her husband reed is a budding architect with mad design skills)!

be sure to add gnome-mad to your daily reading.

april showers bring may flowers.

We got home from our weekend away today to find three gorgeous Stargazer Lillies had bloomed.

I am so excited about them. I kinda freaked out. They look and smell amazing.  

Remember when I planted everything (here)? And then got my first Daylilly (here)?

I can't stop going out in the front yard to admire my blooms. Dorky, I know. But I don't care.

the best part is that it looks like there are lots more fixin' to bloom.

easter lilly.

We kept our Easter Sunday tradition alive this year with sushi and backgammon. We opted for the homemade variety this year followed by a couple rounds of backgammon. We both walked away winners which made for a peaceful night in the Ting household.

Earlier in the day, I weeded my flower beds while D installed a new stereo system in his Mini. I was beyond thrilled to see one of my lilly bulbs actually bloomed! I'm so proud. I planted both Daylilies and Stargazer Lily bulbs... if I get a Stargazer I'll be pretty excited. 

green thumb.

My mom is an avid gardener - vegetables, flowers, fruits... you name it, she can grow it. She's pretty organic, has her own compost and even writes the newsletter for the gardening club. Given all this, you'd assume I have the green thumb gene, right? Well, I'm starting to think maybe I do - even just a little bit.

You see, we completely remodeled our home - inside and out. When we bought our house it was sad. It's a 1950's ranch style home but the previous owners decided they wanted to make it ultra modern which included painting over the beautiful original brick and ripping out all signs of life in both yards - adios grass, giant mature trees (makes me want to cry) and every flower. Oh, and then they just gave up so we bought a half modern and have traditional home with zero vegetation, ugh. (a lot of work? yes. all our friends and family who saw the home when we purchased it thought we were nuts. even i did.)

Slowly, we attempted to bring it back to life.... grass, planted trees and we laid pavers in our front yard to create a big patio and two flower beds. Last summer I tried "to garden" and make those flower beds pretty. It was miserably hot, the dirt was rock hard and filled with cement chunks from the remodel and I had no idea what I was doing. Needless to say, the flower beds didn't look pretty long and I'm ashamed to admit I've let them stay that way for so long... overgrown with weeds and dead flowers.

So this past weekend, I gave my green thumb another try. The weather was beautiful and Danny was going to be working in the front yard all weekend (exciting updates to come on that) so I figured I'd join him. Early Saturday morning, I grabbed my mother-in-law and was off to Home Depot for flowers and bulbs.

I have to say, I really enjoyed planting and working in the flower beds. It was nice to be in the sun with the music on, working with the soil and seeing my flower beds come to life. Kinda cheesy, I know, but I can see why people like this. It's not easy work, my lower back hurts and my fingernails are in desperate need of a manicure - but it was worth it.

I'm hoping the Arizona freezes are behind us and that I'm able to keep these flowers alive. I promise I'm actually going to try this time. Vicky helped me pick out hearty flowers that can tolerate the Arizona sun. We went with ranunculus, violas and snapdragons plus some Daylilly and Stargazer Lilly bulbs - I can't wait to see if they bloom.

{space planning after we weeded and got all the dead Bird's of Paradise palms trimmed}

{my slave for the weekend. she'd dig the little hole and i'd plant}

{now our drip system will actually have something to water}

{sneak preview of the next update... see the brick columns and new white gate?}

{the tings take on the front yard! danny on the fence, teri on the plants}

{and hunter... well, he kept us company}

{yay! pretty flowers under my window. love it}