Stories from my garden

Derek and I bought our first home in the summer of 2016.  The first thing we did was buy paint! A 5 gallon bucket of paint! We painted the walls which made our home really our home. We had never painted walls before, so over the last year we've painted all but one wall in our house. And that one wall has limited time left to contemplate it's beige state.

Before becoming homeowners I had never grown a vegetable or flower. I had planted some annuals for Mother's Day gifts, but never tended a garden, sowed a seed, or considered the acidity of soil, the hours of sun in a particular spot, or the heritage of seeds. That has all changed. I watched, pregnant with my daughter and eager to dig in to the soil, a full year, tracking the sun, tracking the first and last frost, tracking the flowers and shrubs already in the garden, making my plan, second guessing it, and then committing my husband to some instesive physical labor.

First to go was the ornamental plum tree, a.k.a. The mullet tree, from our front garden patch. It was such a hard decision that I debated with myself, chop it down, leave it up, try to prune it, that can never be pruned! But, alas, after a year or talking myself into it, the tree came down and the flowers bloomed! Bearded iris that didn't get enough sun in the shade of the tree sprung up with gusto and bloomed beautifully! Creeping myrtle that really was creeping slowly, stunted, started marathon covering the ground with purple flowers and evergreen foliage. Bachelor's button that wasn't amazing in the first place seemed to grow a foot higher than the previous summer. But left behind was a big brown, dirt spot too shaded for anything to have grown previously.

This has been the absolute best barren area of my life! Where there was nothing, there are some many things growing now! There are plants from friends, family, volunteers from the bees and a family hobby "taking root!"