Do you have a green thumb? or no thumb at all? (well not "no thumb" just no gardening skill really). I credit all my gardening knowledge to my mom. She has always had the most beautiful backyard full of gorgeous flowers. Among many things, she taught me how to weed, how to plant and the difference between an annual and an perennial (although I still mix this up sometimes). Is it just me or does "Annual" sounds like it should come every year kinda like an anniversary? But nope, annuals only come once and perennials return. If you plan your garden correctly, like my mom, you can have flowers in bloom the whole season.

Here is my garden before the weeding (you can barely see the bushes):


How do you know the difference between a weed and a plant?
So today, I prepped my garden for the summer. I started with some serious weeding. Not only was my garden over-grown but the weeds were starting to strangle my plants. I tried to sell it to my husband as an English garden (you know overgrown and wild) but this pitch just wasn't working anymore. One question I always asked my mom what's the difference between a weed and a plant. She would say it's anything that is overgrowing and taking over your garden.


How do you control the weeds?
I don't like to use chemicals in my garden so I just manually remove the weeds whenever I see them. I either grab them by the root and pull them straight up or use a hoe and go to town. The most important thing is to remove the whole weed. Don't leave any root behind (even on the surface of the soil) those little guys are ruthless in their survival so don't be afraid give them a taste of their own medicine.


Also, something new I learned about my tulips, once the flowers are gone you can simple snap off the leaves just ensure the bulb stays in the ground for next year.

I'm also planning to paint my brick border around my flower bed so stay tuned to the blog to see how that turns out.