How is my Cottage Garden Growing???????

First off, I want to Thank Angel over at Sew Crafty Angel for featuring my post,
My Bright and Colorful Patio, Part 1, from last week's Wake Up Wednesday Party!!

Thanks so much , Angel!!

And I also want to Thank Stacey over at Embracing Change for featuring the same post, My Bright and Colorful Patio, Part 1, from last week's Creative Inspirations Linky Party!!

Thanks so much , Stacey!!

Please take some time to visit and link up to the terrific parties!!

Today, I am going to share with you how my little Cottage Garden that is my back yard is growing.

You saw bits and pieces of it when I shared my Patio with you.......

So today, we will take a closer look.......

A lot of these pictures were taken in June as I work on several posts at a time.........

We will start over on the left hand side looking out into the yard from the Patio.......

Last year, I transplanted a few of those yellow flowers ( have no idea what they are as I took them from my MIL's yard several years ago) along the fence to add a pop of color as there are asters planted there and they do not bloom until the Fall.

As you can see, they filled in nicely and formed a pretty border along the fence.......

So much so that I will probably be weeding them out as they spread like crazy!!

Even with temps. in the high 80's close to 90's, everything is still looking good......

We have been having thunderstorms almost everyday because of the heat so the garden is at least getting a watering from Mother Nature!!

I bought this shell plant hanger at a yard sale for 25 cents and had nothing to put in it so I pulled some sedum out of the yard and planted it in this bowl shaped pot and so far so good!

Looking back towards the Patio from the back of the yard......

Now looking toward the back of the yard......

Yes, I have a lot of garden art!!

Soon, my lily on the right by the fence will start to bloom....

I tranplanted some lamb's ear from my neighbor's yard( in front of the angel).....

The sedum is filling in greatly on the stones along the back fence.

That is a new astilbe that I bought at a local nursery that was clearing out all their plants at 50 - 75% off!!

It was $1.00!!!!!

In the photo before the above one, the dianthus in front of the Welcome rock and the plant on the left side were also $1.00 each!!

Now you know I love color and to continue the theme of my Bright and Colorful Patio, I decided to add some color to the white boring fence!!!!

The garden tools are children's toys bought at Dollar Tree!!!!

Love the bright colors and you will see 2 more a little later in this post!

Moving a bit over to the right.....

My little garden vignette with my wicker chair that I found on the side of our road by one of the dumpsters last year......

And my Bike plant stand that was $5.00 at a yard sale also last year!!

The gerber daisy in front of the bike was $2.00 at that same clearance sale at the nursery!!

Looking over from the other side of the yard.....

You can see that those yellow flowers can really spread!!

I have to take pictures of the yard on a cloudy day because half the yard is in shade and half is in sun and it really does not come out well in pictures!!

Looking over at the other side of the yard.......

The trees provide a lot of privacy.....

Over on the other side of the brick walk way.....

A sea of yellow flowers......

And they close up at night......

And reopen in the morning!!

My petunias in the pot on the gazing ball stand are flourishing!!

I have a shasta daisy and a coneflower coming up in this part of the garden and should start to bloom soon!!

Looking toward the shed.....

The chair was a recent yard sale find......

It was $7.00 and we took the seat out and plopped a pot that I had into it!!

I didn't even paint it!!

Just left the white chippy paint on it!!

The gazing ball is an old one on a new stand!!

These annuals planted in this flower box were also bought at that clearance sale.....24 plants for $3.00!!

I also planted some in the yard out here in the back and in the front yard too!!

The hostas do well in the shade of the tree!!

There is another cone flower in that sea of yellow that will start to bloom soon!!

Now let's look along this side by the fence.....

See where I hung the other colorful garden tools!!

Along the fence.....

I took some old garden tools that we no longer use and attached them to the fence......

Don't know if you noticed these in the beginning of this post....

The impatiens that I planted in my bags are doing well this year.....

See the clear gazing ball????
Well, that was my new mirrored ball that I bought in the beginning of the season and all the silver finish just sort of disappeared!!

I think it might have been caused by bird poop from all the birds that we get in the yard because of the next door neighbor's bird feeders!!

That is the old milk box that I painted and planted begonias in !!

The birds really like the bird bath and I can watch them from the window while sitting at the computer......

Butterflies hung on a trellis given to me by a neighbor that I painted bright red.......

And these are asters that will bloom in the Fall.....

So that is how my little cottage garden is growing.......

The yellow flowers have now stopped blooming and are ready to be cut back and weeded out so I will be moving things around to fill that space......

I will be sharing with you how the garden continues to grow and bloom through out the season so I hope you will come back!!

We had a great 4th of July weekend as it was nice and cool with temps in the 70's and no humidity before another heat wave came along!!

The kids came for a little celebration on the 4th. I did work that night but was off the weekend. We got to sit on our front porch on Sat. and Sun evening and relax!!