It's the Spring Issue!

Oh MAN!  What a great spring!  We've had ridiculously warm days early on, and then a whole bunch of rain, so when I came home from my 6-day Florida vacation, the plants were crazy big!

But let me back up.  While it was starting to get warm here in Michigan, I was fortunate to take a longer-than-a-weekend trip to Florida.  We have a condo in St. Pete on the Gulf of Mexico with a beautiful view of the beach.  This picture doesn't accurately depict the perfect white sand.  We stayed for 6 days and I realized how important those extra days were for relaxation.  When its a long weekend, it's almost time to go home by the time you get there!  We had no immediate plans, and home was so many days away.  It was such a great break from reality!

Now back to the garden.  It's always so great to see that FIRST flower popping through.  Even if it's cold out, it makes me KNOW that spring is on it's way.  I know I know that its inevitable, but with winter in Michigan, sometimes Im not so sure.  THIS was the first flower, the early Crocus, back on April 1st.

Followed by my tulips, including the ones from Holland.  Amazing.   And only a few daffodils.  I must have screwed them up by planting so many tulips.   

And this is my favorite kind of daffodil, with the lipstick, as I like to call it.

So I'm a perennial flower kind of girl.  I love watching them come up in the spring, creating more plants of themselves, the surprise of the flowers, the mourn of the flowers that suddenly didn't come up one year (RIP, Pam's choice foxglove!).  And I would like to say that it's because I don't want all the work of planting annuals every year, but I end up planting every year anyway.  Yes, some of them are perennials.  I literally have no room left in my garden beds!  (my flower guy at the farmer's market said, "You said that two weeks ago when you were buying plants!") But my favorite annuals are dahlias (the big pretty ones), gazenias, cosmos, hot lips (that's what my flower guy calls them - Im not sure what they're really called), and pansies.  I think it's because I like the variation of colors and the graphic element to them.

I wanted to share the spring fertilizer that I sprayed across my lawn and flowers.  I have found that they really like this mix, so I look forward to seeing them flourish:

1 bottle of beer

1 can of Sprite

1/2 cup mouthwash

1/2 cup ammonia

1/2 cup dish soap

Put in hose sprayer - spray early in the morning 

Sneak peak - the first iris has flowered, the rest of them are on their way, and the lilies are threatening to come out soon as well!  Next blog will have the GORGEOUS dahlias I bought this year as well.

PEACE.  LOVE.  SERENE.