Butterfly Garden - Almost Done!

Worked hard on the butterfly garden today.  I can't say I'm totally pleased with it yet.  I really don't like how the zinnias look there.  My plan is to remove them, put them in a smaller garden near the walkway, & replace them with a perennial ... a Black-Eyed Susan perhaps?

There are 2 bee balms, a lavender, 4 liatris, 4 delphiniums, 2 tritomas, 2 yarrows, 2 coneflowers, & a "mystery plant" there on the right side.  If anyone knows what it is, please clue me in.  The foilage is purple & green, there are small pink flowers, & it is quite bushy.  Butterflies love it of course   : )

I also took "before" pictures of our foundation but I will save them for another day.  We went to the nursery this morning to talk with the landscaper & pick out some plants.  We will be getting some sort of grass that has pink blooms, holly, globe wintergreen boxwood, silver frost butterfly bushes, some kind of tall sort of bamboo-looking things, & 2 or 3 hydrangeas.  There are probably some others but I can't think of them right now.  Of course we've already got those huge willow bushes we bought about a month ago & had to transplant into larger pots.  Actually had to transplant one again today because it's growing so quickly.  I found out something about those willows ... in the springtime they get yellow catkins on them, then in the summer the foliage is variegated green & white & by summer's end turns a bit pink.  In the winter the wood stems turn bright red.  And to think I was just happy to have the variegated leaves ... lol!  I also got to finally pick out a Christmas tree.  I have been wanting to plant a blue spruce here ever since we moved in.  Christmas lights you know   : )   I forget what this one is called but it was shaped very nicely without any bare spots.  Hard to find them like that!

While taking pictures I decided to check out one of our smoke trees.  I've noticed a bird flying in & out of it on occasion.  Sure enough there's a nest in there ... & look what's inside!

    

Aren't those eggs just so pretty?  The nest is very close to the top of the tree, not very well covered by leaves or anything.  I just had to move 1 branch aside to take the picture.  I always wonder what the poor birds do when there is a heavy rain & their nests are exposed like that.

The landscaper's assistant came this afternoon & put mulch around almost all our trees & bushes already planted.  He didn't realize how many we had ... lol!  He will be back tomorrow to finish the others & the landscaper is also planning to come here to edge the planting beds & pretreat them.  He said we then have to wait 10 days before it will be safe to dig the beds & plant things.  John & I had to dig up some things to get them out of the way.  All my iris plants were along the side of the front porch.  I need to find a new home for them.  I was thinking of putting a raised bed somewhere in the yard.  We also dug up 4 lilac bushes that should be ashamed to call themselves lilacs.  No flowers ... just green leaves.  They were in front of a concrete wall next to the driveway.  We will put them somewhere we can't see them.

I guess I've rambled on long enough in this post ... lol!  Tomorrow I'm off to Lexington ... again ... to get a lab test done.  On the way home I'll be stopping at the place where I got my bifocals to tell them exactly what I think of them.  Hopefully they can figure out what is wrong.  It's been a busy day & I can't believe it's after 9 p.m. already!  I think I'll sleep well tonight.  I hope all of you will too   : )