You want me to do WHAT?

"STOP!"

About 30 minutes into our latest project I asked J to stop working.  

"Why?" he slowly replied as he turned just as slowly toward me.  

"Because I need you to put the plants we just dug out back into the ground because I forgot to take a before picture!" I said with an almost straight face.  

I ran a few steps away so he couldn't throw dirt at me, and he kept digging.  

Alas, no before pictures for this one, but there will be after pictures!  

We were leaving a local farm and garden store where we entered to buy only a new lawn mower blade.  We I spotted some lovely plants that were asking for a new home for the low price of $6.99 each or 2 for $9.  Hmm...I decided we needed at least 10!  

I quickly googled the names of each to ensure their safety for the canines.  The treasure valley is a little abundantly landscaped with yellow lilies, which are not safe for our girls.  Our backyard is no exception.  However, coneflowers, coreopsis, and phlox all passed the test.  One of the varieties was even named "Kim's Knee High."  Into the shopping cart they went!  

We also had a lovely boxwood that was out front and becoming engulfed by its neighbor plant.  So he moved to the backyard too.  

Here's the not so surprising surprise.  The new location of the boxwood was *gasp* a home to a previous plant--I'm guessing a boxwood since there was one on the other side of the tree.  I knew it looked off balance!  

Anyway, here is the lovely progress shot.  For the before, imagine overgrown and toxic to dogs lilies.  Thanks for helping me thin out most of the overgrowth last fall, Mom!  We left the bucket in for this shot for the next part of the story...

Here is the SURPRISING surprise.  See the bird feeder?   Right before we started digging we discovered that we were out of bird food.  Ok, this wasn't much of a surprise.  I haven't put food out there in several months.  However, it was NOT empty!  A opportunistic group of hornets had taken up residence INSIDE and UNDER the lid of the feeder.  

I love that feeder.  J gave it to me as a gift a couple of years ago for Christmas.  (Ignore the fact that I haven't used it much this year...I still like the look of it!)  We didn't want to spray the nest because it would surely taint the feeder and render it useless for food and logistically there was no way to get the spray in there anyway without getting stung.  (Side note:  this area is notorious for hornets and the pros get called in a lot in the valley.)

So we drowned them.  We carefully tied a plastic bag around the feeder, snipped the small branch it was hanging on, and dunked it into a bucket of water, and held it in the water until it was full--using a looooong handled garden tool. Just to be safe, we moved the bucket away from the work area and kept an eye out for other "residents" trying to make their way home.  We both escaped unharmed and well, we can't say the same for the hornets. I was already stung by a bee while trimming the lavender back this year so I'd already reached my quota for the year. 

We still have work to do in this corner, but it's certainly looking better!  I'm definitely becoming a fan of end of summer planting--the sales are much better.  Everything we planted last year from the greenhouses did great this year, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. 

Alright...off to the front yard for one more project.  I know you are all smart and have noticed that I said I purchased 10 plants and then named them--but there aren't 10 new plants in the picture above (only 5 or the purchased beauties).  Good thing I didn't say we were completely done with the front yard!  

Until next time...