my thumb is turning green

i never thought i would utter those words. ever. most of the plants in my life have led a short and sad life.

a few weeks into our marriage, brandon and i made a trip to earl may to buy our first house plant together. we made sure to get something that didn't require much attention, as we lived in an apartment and didn't have a lot of natural light. the employee assured us that this plant (no idea what kind) would survive indoors and it was so easy to maintain. we would have to try to kill this plant. okay. easy enough....

fast forward a few weeks and it had slowly withered away to a few desperate looking yellow leaves. there are no words. i'm ever so sorry, my dear house plant:( unfortunately, that was not the last plant that died a slow and water deprived death.
two years later, in the midst of my pregnancy, my lovely hubby continued to remind me that all my plants died, i decided to give back the kitties that we adopted (a story for another day), so how in the world would i be able to be a mommy if i couldn't figure out how to mother plants or animals?!? my response? i am no botanist or zoologist....i was made to be a mother:)

since we moved into our new house, the reality has set in that we actually have to do yard work. as the snow started to melt and the green, little buds began to poke their heads out of last year's brown leaves, i began to panic. i don't know what to cut back, leave alone, trim, rake, compost, water......heck, i just found out the difference between perennials and annuals. the previous owner left us with many beautiful perennials, as well as a garden. brandon wanted to plant "our own" things ( to him, it's not as much fun to watch someone else's plants come up. i think it's genius. i get to take credit for living and surviving [cross your fingers] plants that i did nothing to. booyah.) in the garden. so last week we dug up the garden and planted a salad bar of a garden. i sent B to earl may for something simple, like tomatoes and peppers, and he came home with 27 different things to plant. uhg, MEN.
we got to tilling, digging, raking, removing child from dirt, planting and watering. we did one row of broccoli, one row of garlic, two rows radishes, two rows of strawberries, a blueberry plant, and a raspberry plant. only to find most of them chewed down to nuthin' the next morning. brandon was ready to strangle any and all rabbits. we invested in a cheap garden fence and haven't had any issues since.....let's hope they grow back!

here are a few pictures of some backyard plants. besides the ones we planted ourselves, i have no idea what anything else is. i need to invest in one of those plant books with pictures. also, these pics were taken before we watered, so the ground looks dry. but the soil was raked to an inch of it's life by my burly husband, so i assure you that the soil was not dry.

some pretty perennials that sprouted. the sign said snap dragons. is this right??

the garden. pretty uneventful these days. let's hope for some action soon!

sad raspberry bush was dinner for the neighborhood rabbits. we're hopeful it will come back to life soon....

blueberry bush alive and well...so far, so good!

couldn't have a post without this precious soul. this is actually in my parent's back yard. she was looking for the dog next door.

hostas are blooming away!

anyone out there into the art of gardening?? i need some serious tips....pass 'em my way!