Front Flower Garden

As of today.  I'm looking forward to it filling in. The grass is doing pretty well, too. 

I hope they

survive while we are on our journeys.   Its a whole new area to landscape.

It's been a very tiring day.

We started out at 8:30 am and finished by 8:30 pm.  We wouldn't have gotten nearly as much done without Jackson's help.  We enlisted him to help move the cement rims from where the tree was, but then he volunteered to come out and help Gary get the roots out.

He even proudly showed me big worm he found.

This makes me

Happy.

Taking a break from

this for a moment

(Sadly the middle tree didn't make it) 

 A few remnants of summer fun.

 What a gorgeous November day!

Two more days

of hard labor behind us

(but I won't show my arm this time.)

The last few days have been very rainy and cloudy.

I've been out there working this morning in the mud.

The sky feels like it did when we drove through

Whitby Island the first time.

Kind of haunting, but beautiful.

Here are are the results so far:

This is where the white arbor was.

I loved the white arbor, but it is looking pretty bad.

We've moved it to the side of the house where

we are going to make a hut of sorts

when the grandchildren are here.

I'm already enjoying that little shady nook.

View to the side while sitting in the chair.

View to the swing from the chairs.

I planted the arborvitae trees that will

grow 10-12 ft high x 2 feet wide.

Our new arbor with a clock behind it.

That's so when I'm out working in the yard

I can look up and go,

"Oh, it's noon.  No wonder I'm hungry."

There is the tree we planted 3 years ago.

View of back with the "roaring" fountain

that everyone makes so much fun of.

I personally thought it was a great mail-order deal.

West side view

West side by our "Cotty" shrine.

I'm really pleased with how the fence turned out. I do kind of miss the more filled in, established look,we had with the full grown lilac bushes. Hopefully the trees will fill it in quickly. I also want to plant some kind of climbing plant on the arbor, but I don't know what.  It's still a work in progress, but I'm having fun visualizing my grandchildren playing back there this summer.

It's dark,

so I finally had to come in from the garden. I'm definitely late getting my flowers and vegetables in this year. I've felt less badly about that than I normally would because  the weather has been so rainy and snowy (yes snow in May) up until now.

But today was the day.  Actually, much of the pre-work was done on Monday when Gary and I did the clean out and loosening of the soil.  On Monday evening we had a little gathering here with all the neighbors that we share fences with.  Because they were coming, we felt the need to make the yard at least look tidy.

Our fence has been falling down for several years and it is definitely time to do something.  If there was any doubt about that, it was dispelled after Wednesday night.   On Wednesday, for a fundraiser activity, the youth in the ward came and cut down our lilac bushes (that were dead).  The next morning the fence was practically lying on the ground.   The dead lilac bushes were definitely the braces holding the fence up.  I took some pictures of the fallen down fence, but the pictures are no where to be found on my camera.  I would maybe think I was hallucinating about taking the pictures, except that I also took a picture of Gary acting like he was holding it up.  So I have collaboration that I took the pictures.  But I just don't have the pictures.

Anyway, I planted all the front yard annuals and a few back yard annuals today.  I didn't want to plant too many in the back yard because I figure they would get somewhat trampled when we put in the new fence.  But, I did plant some seeds that my friend, Barbara, gave me for Christmas.

It is amazing what she does with the seeds.  She gathers them from flowers and plants everywhere she can--even as far away as New York (where here daughter lives).  She packaged them all up with instructions and descriptions. Here is a picture of some of them and the beautiful butterfly garden book she made me.  It is the gift that keeps on giving.

Well, I'm tired. 

It's been a busy, but good, day. 

   

Putting the

Garden to bed.

With snow predicted for next week,

I decided I had better clean out the the

back yard garden beds.

It took me all day.

I did take a few breaks

and rested in the hammock.

Here is what I saw.

You'll notice it still looks a little messy.

I'm giving Gary the "opportunity" to

participate in this activity by

fillling the rest of the garbage cans.

When I told him,

he said he was grateful for the privilege.

Even among all the dead plants,

there is still this.

Deep, Deep Thoughts

in the Garden this morning.

If you crawl through the weeds
they're sure to stick to you,
And they're hard to get rid of.

Sometimes I'm just not sure what
direction I should be growing in.

Am I a zucchini or a pumpkin?
Are there such things as round zucchinis?
The tag said I was a zucchini.

Orange Lilies

During the summer of 1995, right after Misty and Dan got married, I was still very much a novice at gardening. Dan's sister, Cindy, had graduated in horticulture and loved and knew much about gardening. She offered to help me, so I gave her a budget and sent her out to buy some plants. She then went the extra mile and planted them, which was a great boost to me. Some of the flowers haven't survived my care, but many have, and this is one example.

I love the bright orange color (it always reminds me of Dad who loved orange). It gets bigger and and better every year and will be even prettier next week.

Speaking of the garden, I need to get out and do some weeding in the morning if it isn't raining.

Too Dark to Plant

I'm a little behind schedule this year. We finally went out last night and bought our annuals for the yard and a few tomato and squash plants. Gary loosened up the dirt and I started the planting tonight. It's now too dark, so I'll have to finish in the morning.

Who would have thought 20 years ago that I would be into gardening? It was the last thing on my mind and the last thing I had any desire to do.

Out in the dirt.
Under the baking sun.
Digging.
Not one of those sounded the least bit enticing.

I can tell you precisely when that all changed.

1994

In the summer of 1993 we did some remodeling. We tore down the screened in patio at the back of the house. The screened in patio filled some good purposes. In the summer, it was nice to have a covered spot to have gatherings. But if it was hot, it was still too hot. In the winter, it was too cold. The biggest problem, though, was that the roof slanted down so that there was no direct light into the kitchen window. In fact, you could never see the sun or sky and very little of the yard. The kitchen was always dark. I still remember the first day it was torn down. I was in amazement. I could look out the kitchen window and see the sun and the sky!

We had decided to add on a room that could be used all the time and would serve as a an extension of the kitchen. Really, the major deciding factor was that Misty and Tiffany were teenagers and were having friends over all the time. So, they and their friends would hang out in the family room. The living room is not private from the family room (and doesn't have a TV) so Gary and I were relegated upstairs to a bedroom. By adding the "sunroom," it gave us another place to gather and also made entertaining much for comfortable. It has made a world of difference in our enjoyment of the house.

I know,

this is a very long explanation
of how I got into gardening.

The remodeling was still going on at the time that my Dad died in September of 1993. In fact, the last picture we have of him at our house is for Misty's birthday on August 22. In the picture you can see the frame of the sunroom in the background. I'll scan a picture in and post it tomorrow.
To make a long story "shorter," when spring came around in 1994 I could see the back yard in its full unkempt glory. I honestly don't ever remember even weeding in the back yard before then. I'm sure I must have, or maybe Gary did, but I honestly just didn't worry about it.

Now, however, it was an extension of the house. A very visible extension of the house, I must say. So, I decided I better do something about it. To my utter amazement, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed experimenting with different flowers and I found the whole process from beginning to end very therapeutic. I think it all came together at just the right time for me.

I honestly knew so little about it, that many times I would have my friend (thank you, Dianne) come over to tell me whether what was sprouting up from the ground was a flower I had planted or a weed that I didn't want. I was also so proud of my "giant" zucchini until I found out that being giant wasn't really an asset with zucchini.

So, I've come a long way. I still have a long way to go. There are times that it does seems like a chore and like just one more thing to do. But, I always enjoy the results.