Downtown Home and Garden is AWESOME!

This is where I get all my daffodils and bulbs from! Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor Michigan totally rocks. I feel bad that not everyone can have such an awesome garden center to visit-
They are friendly and cheerful and they sell what a gardener needs...not all that other stuff. Plus Mark opened a food cart courtyard in back where you can jet in and grab a snack while you are between weeding gigs. AND after work in the summer you can go grab a beer at his new beer garden! Giving business a good name in Ann Arbor! Thanks you guys!
This spring I am planning on planting a lot of asiatic bulbs. I have been having issues lately with my coneflowers and I need that shot of pink in the summer! So here is to hoping that lilies will help. If you have deer issues...build a fence...or surround with plants they don't like...I have been experimenting with this...still in fledgling faze.

Butterflies in My Garden

Well...I know my blog is supposed to be about the plants I like to plant...but I get distracted on occasion.
But one plant I really love is regular old-fashioned Milkweed...it can grow up to 7 feet tall or more in my garden! And I love it's big dusky rose colored pom poms that smell like honey...mmmmm. And all the bumble bees and honey bees go absolutely NUTS over it.
A few day ago I was like, sigh, how come I never get any butterflies in my garden...I work so hard and not a single butterfly...whine, whine, whine...yada, yada, yada....And then the very next day I saw a monarch butterfly all over that Milkweed! YES!
And today I was whining to my dad about how I was not going to get any caterpillars because all the ants would eat them first...and low and behold-I saw TWO baby monarch caterpillars!!! YES!
I realize that two does not bode well against legions of predators...but I feel very happy none-the-less!
I even saw a hummingbird buzz by to check out my first time in bloom Trumpet Vine...only took 5 years...but hey...gardening is an exercise in patience and hard work!
I can thank both my parents for leading me to the joys of gardening and bird watching. I'm sure I thought they were crazy when I was a kid, but now I totally get it....
If you enjoy really cool garden things....like gazing globes and bird feeders and fire pots check out
Cool Garden Things!