A Couple of Great Companies

We bought this little Cape Cod style house 15 months ago. It had great bones and wonderful charm but needed a lot of TLC. It had been abused and neglected. It didn't have a tree in the entire yard. Some knuckleheaded, peyote smoking owner before us put rocks everywhere. You can see the bed of rocks in the foreground of the picture that someone put in for extra parking. That is going to be dug out and replaced with luscious grass one day. There is also rock all around the house and in certain places in the backyard. Now, if you are one of those knuckleheads that actually LIKE rock - don't worry. I won't tell anyone that you smoke peyote! People will probably figure that out on their own when they see truckloads of rock in your yard. But enough about rocks and peyote, already. Back to my house. We have focused most of our attention on the inside seeing as how the weather was too stinkin' cold to do much of anything outside for months on end and all. Now that the weather is becoming more favorable - it's back to the outdoors for us. MW put a new roof on the hot tub house this past weekend. The garage is going to be painted next. And I am going to paint the front door, shutters and light post out front within the next few weeks. I know - very ambitious seeing how I don't even have my sewing projects done yet. We could have looked at the yard in one of two ways: A) A total train wreck. B) A blank slate. We chose option B. That means we have had (and still have) our work cut out for us. We have planted 8 trees, a lilac bush and various bulbs and perennials out front already. Some from local places. Some from mail order.

Today I wanted to give a little shout out to a couple of plant and flower companies that we have had great experiences with.

The first one is Spring Hill Nurseries . A couple of weeks ago we received our first order from them. We bought a perennial shade garden set that had a bleeding heart, or is that hearts? Oh, well. It also had 4 astilbe and 6 lily of the valley. We also bought 3 rose bushes and 4 diamond grasses that went into containers on my porch. One of my grasses died. Bummer. BUT...this company has a great guarantee. Unlike most big chains and local nurseries that guarantee their plants and trees for a year - Spring Hill guarantees theirs for life. They will either send you a replacement or a full refund, whichever you prefer. I called them yesterday and they are sending another replacement grass right out to me. No questions asked. You can order a free catalogue from their website. They usually have great coupons, too. We got half off of our entire order, plus the perennial shade garden was already 50% off. We ended up getting that $40 set of shade perennials for $10. I can deal with paying 25% for something!

The second company I want to tell you about is Breck's Bulbs. Last fall we received an order of about 125 tulip bulbs and 25 Discover Dutch Iris bulbs. The tulips were stunning this year. The irises have yet to show off because they bloom later. I noticed, though, that only 12 of the 25 irises have come up. They have the same warranty as Spring Hill. So I called them yesterday, too. I expected that they would probably send me 13 bulbs to replace the ones that didn't come up. They are going to send me a whole new set of 25 instead! Needless to say, I am VERY pleasantly surprised. The whole reason I ever tried this company in the first place was because I received a catalogue in the mail with a $25 coupon. If I spent $50 - my order would cost $25. If I spent $25 - my order was free. I figured that a company wouldn't do that unless they were so sure that you would love their product that you would be back time and time again. They were right. We are already planning our next order for fall. You can also request a free catalogue from their website.

What I like about these mail order companies is the fact that I can get a much greater selection of plants than I can locally. Don't get me wrong. I DO buy locally - for a lot of stuff. All our trees and our lilac bush were bought locally. And I plan on heading to the local greenhouse within the next week or so to load up on herbs and some annuals to replace my tulips as they die back. But...take my grasses for instance. I wanted to fill my porch containers with something that would look great clear through winter, but it needed to be able to take shade. The grasses I found locally needed full sun. The diamond grass I was able to order can take full sun OR full shade. Once I get some pretty flowers and vines in the pots with the grass it will be beautiful.

So, if you have a particular landscape need - let me encourage you to check out Breck's Bulbs or Spring Hill Nurseries. You'll be able to find a great selection at reasonable prices with a guarantee that can't be beat!

Happy planting!