What's in my Garden?

So....as I mentioned in my last entry, we've invested in a large, fairly well-kept garden (if you don't count the month Tim and I weren't here, which led to a fair amount of weeds!). One of the struggles I am having is that I don't know what most of the plants are in my garden. Soo....I went around and took pictures of some of them, and I'm going to start posting pictures, in the hope that someone may know what they are. Here goes....

Picture #1 - Small bush, about 4-5 inches tall, about 6-8 inches in diameter.

Picture #2 - This is the flowers on a large bush, consisting of lots of green leaves, sort've tree-like, probably about 4 feet tall. I feel like I should know what kind of plan this is, but I don't.

Picture # 3 - Small, fuzzy green plant. I'm wondering if it might be a poppy that has transplanted itself? Or the starts of a thistle...

Picture #4 - This guy is in the planter in my front yard. Some kind of funky ivy maybe?

Picture # 5 - Neighbour to the "funky ivy" is this mysterious green plant. I have no idea what it is, maybe if it had some flowers on it I might... :P

This is the end of round one of "What's in my Garden". Feel free to respond with what the plants are. Think of it as a fun game... :)

Home Sweet Home

We've taken the plunge and relocated to Barrie and bought a house! We've actually had our house for about a month now, and have been living in it for about two weeks. I have been spending most of my time unpacking boxes, organising where things go, and working in our garden. YES we have a garden. I'm learning lots...how to prune, what are weeds and what are plants, what humus is (it's the ideal kind of soil, not to be mistaken for the chick pea mash we love!)...it's lots of fun. The neighbourhood is beautiful and our neighbors are great! Here are some pictures from around our place:

This is our house from the front. Pretty cute eh?

This is one of the many spiders that calls our yard home. We have an absurd number of spiders. I'm not sure why, but they just seem to like our house a lot. I've had a few run-ins with the spiders, and I'm sad to say I did resort to some Spider-Ban (spider killer).

Our neighbours Ralph and Donna gave us these mums. Aren't they beautiful? And this is Ed, hanging out in his new favorite spot.

The funniest part....These are our neighbours that sometimes wander into the field across the street.