Last Tuesday night was a beautiful evening for being outside -- and I took advantage of the weather to get outside and work on my garden for 2 hours after Abby went to bed. I'm just as excited as I was last fall in this post to work on my own landscaping and gardening stuff. Those new bulbs I planted came up beautifully -- the alium are blooming and filling in some little spots of color now that my tulips and irises are gone, before the lilies and hibiscus bloom! The bluebells also came up, but haven't bloomed yet. I bought a few flats of annuals to fill in some color, but it's been so dry I hope I haven't killed them... This spring I also got some black edging that I put in around the front and side of the house to hold in the landscaping I've done, and put down mulch. My, it looks so much different than when we put in our offer on this house two years ago!
What I'm really excited about, and where I spent most of my time last week, is my new "project area." Originally I was thinking of using this space for landscaping and maybe some berry bushes and plants. Nothing too fancy.
Then Rocky put the idea in my head of using the space for my vegetable garden. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. I watched it for a few days, and realized it does get a lot of sun (I'd thought it was the north side of the house, but it's really more northwest).
So away we went! The day I put the edging around the front of the house, I put edging around this section too (it's behind the garage, down a hill to the walk-out basement).
The next big job was tearing out the grass in the area I wanted to use.
Eventually the rest will come out too, but this was as much as I could do that day. And I didn't want such a big garden I'd be too overwhelmed to continue.
On Mother's Day my gift was uninterrupted time outside. :) I scratched in some topsoil, and planted my seeds. Keeping it simple this year -- peas, carrots, beans, and zucchini.
A few weeks later (on our anniversary actually!) I got some marigolds to go around the outside -- hopefully deterring little creatures from eating my plants. I'm trying to keep up with watering, and last week, like I said, I spent almost 2 hours out there weeding one night. It was so great to see the progress!
Now I need to dig out as much of the rest of that area as I can -- I have a friend with strawberry plants who wants to split them once their season is done, so in just a few weeks. I saw some green peeking out of the grass, and look what I found!
I guess I'll be transplanting a couple hosta plants too!
Sorry for the long post, I just couldn't contain my excitement. :) Do you have a garden this year?
It looks fabulous!!! soo much fun too :)
ReplyDeleteIf the part right up against the side of your house gets too much shade, you can plant some of your cool-weather-loving plants there. My in-laws grow lettuce and spinach on the north side of their garage all summer long. Of course, you're further north than us, so maybe the heat doesn't stress your plants as much.
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