Come on up to the porch! Let’s have our morning brew here! We may have to splurge and have a cold brew! A latte that includes chocolate chips is on my mind! If we were having coffee this morning you would know I have been living on my porch and in the garden! When I’m not in the garden I am on one of the porches admiring the garden! There is nothing better than sitting on your porch watching the world go by! I have been busy! Honestly, the weeks are just flying by and I have been so busy with EVERYTHING! First, there is the garden. I just love Spring and the first thing I do is assess the garden and see what I want to do “new”. That means at least one trip to the garden nurseries and my favorite is Wilson’s in Rock Hill, SC. Of course, I don’t actually live in SC so that is a lovely day trip that I look forward to! Wilson’s is huge and I got so wrapped up in seeing all the plants, I only took one photo. The rest of the time I was going down every row and trying to figure out how I was going to get all the plants I selected in my car! Sometimes more than one trip is necessary to Wilson’s!

Then there is the local nurseries, one of my favorites is the one at the ice cream parlor! You can kill two birds with one stone there! After the new plants are in there is the photo taking, so I can remember what I did every year. That is so essential to me now, because everything grows up so quickly and I am amazed at how small everything was at one time and how I change up the flower beds constantly! Every evening is spent in walking the neighborhood to see what everyone else is doing in their garden, so it’s a great time of year! So, here are some of the new plants in my Cottage Garden! Next week I will do the new plants in the Woodland Garden!

My favorite combinations for my garden plants are the lime and pink to purple-red look. Love it!

The Golden Spider Wort is not a new plant, but it is probably my favorite and the one that I get asked about the most! I just keep separating it and adding it to other places in the garden as well!

The eleven deep purple salvia is new and doing well. I took out a ground cover that was clearly tired of grounding!  I gave the plant in the big bluish pot a good go to pull through, but when it didn’t look so hot, out it went!

The new pot filling consists of a Flamingo Feather! How beautiful is that? The lavender colored plants are Bluebirds and the lime green filler is a Creeping Jenny!

One of my pink drift roses gave up the ghost and I replaced it with a peach drift rose. Hmm……. that may be a mistake in the long run or they will become all entwined together and look great! We’ll see how that decision turns out!

Here is a peek of the last blooms of the phlox as they fade away! Love them!

And the Single Bloom Peonies….. they were a gift from an elderly neighbor’s garden and she had planted them years ago! Now they are in my Cottage Garden too!

Another Old Fashion Peony in the Garden….. another gift from a neighbor….

And I must show the pinky-red shrub roses!

This potted plant is called Snow and Summer, an Asiatic Jasmine. As it blooms through the summer the leaves turn from green to a variegated pink and white! So Cool!

So here is a photo of the Cottage Garden along one white picket fence…..

Here is a view of the Cottage from the Hill! I LOVE my porches and I have another huge one in the back to view the Woodland Garden!

Last, but not least, are my various clumps of irises……  For Mothers Day SB pulled all, but these (the smallest clump of the bunch) because they had never been thinned out!!!! That grassy looking stuff is Mondo Grass and it has taken over too, so out it is coming in the next few weeks!

And here are the roots from the irises!!!!! No dividing them!

I’m going to give those spots a rest over the summer and then plant new bulbs in the fall of something! Stay tuned!

In addition to that, there have been the proms, graduations, entertaining, and the daily talks with my daughter and the multiple discussions on flooring, carpet, cabinets, paint, pools, furniture, etc, while she is working on her move to their new house. And in the fray of all that I am getting ready for travel season! I now have 10 posts thought out just for new travel accessories for this year! As you know we have finally decided to take our first cruise EVER and I have learned so much and I will be sharing it with you in the coming weeks! Well, it is time to get another latte and get a move on with the day! I need to get to the post office this morning to pick up another travel goodie I ordered! I enjoy our Saturday talks, so let me know what you have been up to!

This is part of the #Weekend Coffee Share! I think it is great having coffee with all of you! It is hosted by Nerd in the Brain!  Be sure to link up so you can see what everyone else is saying over coffee!