No, I haven't cooked yet

When we bought this house the previous owners were a bit, uhmm.. spastic? regarding their planting. It seemed that either the lady or gentleman of the house liked to buy hedges and rose plants and just dig a hole randomly all over the front yard and front beds. I wish I had taken a picture of what it looked like before so you could really understand what I mean be spastic. We moved in at the end of May in 2003 and one of the first jobs I gave hubbs was to tear out the rose plants (I'm just not a rose lover) and the hedges so we could plant what we liked. After all of the painting and minor repairs were done in the house, it was my job to put the inside of the house together and his job to make the outside look pretty. Hubbs and I dated for a few years before living together and he always told me about his gorgeous lawns and award winning beds, so I felt more than comfortable allowing him to do his creative thing outside. With that said.. imagine my shock and utter surprise when I went outside to see what he had accomplished. It had looked as if the previous owners' spirits had taken over Hubbs' body because he planted everything in a total mish-mosh way. There was no balance at all. I am a balance freak, people. I'm also thinking I must have some kind of compulsive manic disorder because when things aren't balanced.. I shake. I can't look at it. I start to sweat. I can't stop thinking about whatever it is that isn't balanced until it's finally balanced. I'm weird, eh? But what to do? He spent hours working out there and he seemed pleased with his work. I did a good job keeping a smile on my face while he was giving me the tour but that was only because my mouth went dry and my lips were stuck to my teeth. Which, really? I'm thankful for. I didn't want to tell him that this was wrong, all terribly wrong. I wanted to just get over my silliness and be happy that all the pretty flowers were planted and there were no more hedges and rose plants. So I kept my mouth shut and thanked him for a job well done. I made it through that summer without spontaneously combusting into a pile of unbalanced ash. That's as far as I made it.. I started making comments the following summer. Little things said here and there. Still, I controlled myself to not go batshit crazy and go out there and tear up the two beds. I did my thing and weeded and mulched. It was this spring that I just couldn't hold back any longer and I asked him if he'd be willing to move some plants around because the unbalance of the beds was truly killing me inside. teeeee! Thankfully, he didn't get upset and actually agreed with me that they were looking a "bit" off as the hostas had gotten huge and took up most of the space on the right side. Phew - thank you hostas! So yesterday we got to work. We moved every single plant to a more balanced and serene layout. And we started to make a bed in the backyard bigger. We didn't finish until about 7:30 and we've still got mulching to do sometime this week. Next weekend is the job of taking all the hedges out of the back yard to prepare for the new wood privacy fence. Wooo Hooo! Here are a few pictures of some of the new plants we purchased. And the herbs.. the glorious herbs :D Gerber daisies for my tiny wagon The glorious fall leaf looking plant I was telling you about - isn't it gorgeous? The top of my strawberry pot has basil and sage This side shows italian flat leaf parsley, lemon verbena and cilantro And this side shows chives, dill and thyme And these are my Tiger Lilies.. they really took off this year, look at all the blooms! Yay! Okay well there are more on my Flickr account if you want to peruse them.. I think if you just click on one of the above pictures it'll take you there. Have any of you seen that autumn leafy looking plant before? It's a perennial and someone at the nursery told me that it lasts year round. I'm wondering what it looks like during the winter? Alrighty, am a happy floral'd camper now. I can get back to cooking this week! I miss my kitchen :)