All Things Beautiful

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colors,

He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,

The river running by,

The sunset, and the morning,

That brighten up the sky;

The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,

He made them every one.

The tall trees in the greenwood,

The meadows where we play,

The rushes by the water,

We gather every day;

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well.
~Cecil Alexander

There is nothing too exciting about our little porch or flowers, unless of course you ask Paige or me!!  We spend a lot of time on the porch and when I decorated my little porch before we moved in I hoped someday I would have the time to enjoy it!  In an effort to save some money, I decided I would try my hand at planting seeds in my flower beds and see what happened.  I have been waiting and waiting...chirp chirp...nothing.  Then the hail storm came and it did a number on everything including my piles of dirt.  That's when I gave up hope.  Tyler and I made a bet about the beautiful pink petunias.  If I could keep them alive, he would let me buy some flowers.  I'm not much of a betting woman, makes my stomach hurt, but I hate to lose.  Next thing you know I had petunias growing on top of each other (bright pink pic above)!!  I was so excited and started thinking about what treasures I would buy for my little flowerbed!  Then last week we were watering and I noticed something that caught my eye in the dirt pile.  Sure enough it was a Johnny Jump Up (purple and yellow flower above)!  I planted those!!!  There was one.  Two days later there were three.  One day later there were seven.  Yesterday there were 13!!!!!!  There is also some evidence of other things but no flowers yet.  So I am beside myself with joy!  So I rushed to the garage and decided to plant some more seeds in a pot.  In the green pot above you will see lots of green sprouts...those are my Black Eyed Susans starting!  Those get quite tall and will be going in the backyard if they take off, which it looks like they will.  I needed to get my Ice Plant in the ground as it is a Perennial so I want to be sure it gets established so it will be back next summer so I bought four coleus to plant in between my four ice plants along my walkway out front.  It was Kim's suggestion and she was right!  The colors and the different heights look really nice together and I am sure the neighbors are glad they don't have to stare at the collection of pots I was starting to create along the front of our house!  Tyler started calling me the cat lady with my yard art.  Hopefully we will get some more things going in the back and I am convinced I can figure this seed thing out!!  I have a lot more respect for you gardeners...it is HARD work!  I am enjoying my suntan though:)