The Week Leading Up To Mothers Day Gardening

I love it when I have the time to sit and notice the garden growing...

There are all kinds of simple changes happening every day out there!

And I have renewed hopes that 2012 will be a much better gardening year than 2011.

So a week and a half ago - I committed an entire Saturday to cleaning up the 2011 leftovers... 

 I divided and replanted...

 Weeded and planted some annuals.

I like to have my fair share of native perennials and random annuals to add something different every year.

 Treated myself to a re-blooming Lilac bush for Mother's Day (from the kids to me).

 They are already acting like goof balls when I ask them to pose by it for size over time sake...

 And we very much enjoy these wonderful spring days...

 And I know we're on the right path with gardening with our local wildlife in mind,

because the Red Admirals have been around already and are quite "all over the place"...

 The week leading up to Mother's Day for me was much better than actual "mothers day".

It just stinks to miss your mom so much on days like this.

Distractions help (like a few minutes out in the garden with Riley after his nap, going to family events), but the day had it's bad moments in between...

We went and got new flowers for my mom's grave...

Chloe loves helping me pick out the arrangements for mom and we always add in some little birds and butterflies, and a few things with sparkles (my mom loved things that sparkled).

Always tying in things remembered that she loved...

I just hope that if someone comes to replace these with another, that they have the courtesy to leave these there for us, or contact me that they are putting up replacements.

What is grave site etiquette for this sort of thing anyway?

Guess I could google it...

Sunday Garden Day...

Sunday was very humid, but cool.

And we had nothing planned going on…

 So it was family out in the garden day.

Riley is finally big enough to get around on his own!

 Slow start - looking over some of the pretty blooms.

Loving these Begonias that I got from Karen A. last year!

The Main Side Hill Garden is a complete overgrown mess! 

 Overgrown is one thing…

Overgrown with invasive Japanese Stilt Grass, Thistle,

And Butterfly Bushes yet to be pulled is another.

There is a sort of desperation feeling with the latter.

 The Stilt grass is first to go.

Little by little, the "worm finder" and I get wheelbarrows full pulled out.

She helped "pick up piles" with the little plastic shrub rake for about 5 minutes before discovering the worms. And well, having a worm hunter with you in the garden - is a must!

I think this was 3 wheelbarrows full...

Then 4 or 5 as I move to the pathway mid-way down the hill...

Standing on the cleared pathway, looking up at where I started.

I'm such an ADHD weeder - all over the place!

Especially when there is so much to do, and there are two little kids running around, leading you to clearing paths for them so they can get through without toppling over from tripping from the overgrowth.

This would be the path before clearing…

Notice the green round Cats Mint up on the left in the above photo.

And after.

Now can you see the rounded Cats Mint?

See - there really is a path there!

Which, by the time it was all cleared,

The worm hunter had given up her gloves and was happily walking the path, sitting on the garden walls, picking seeds from pods that were splitting open - and singing!

A happy almost 4 year old singing made up songs in the garden is the best thing ever…

Well, maybe a big strong husband prepared with shovel and chainsaw is better…

Hmmm - maybe it was the combination of everyone being there that made it perfect!

Worm Hunter...

Shrub Rake Master (master at getting it stuck in anything)...

Foot Stomper helping dad dig up that holly that was half dead...

Seed gatherer…

Garden path and rock wall explorers...

There is still a ton of work to do.

But just about all the butterfly bush is gone.

Stilt grass and thistle are a plenty - a lot gone, a lot left to pull...

 Once the upper bed is finished, the bottom bed can be cleaned up too.

Then I can pull the remaining cone flowers and any other plant showing signs of Aster Yellows Disease. I will replant clean cone flowers next season, so they ALL have to come out this year.

I have some plants that need to go in this year - goldenrod, little joe pyeweed, etc.

And Riley will be getting his first pair of crocs next summer so he can have nice clean shoes after that can be rinsed off with the hose.

Besides - who doesn't love the happy squeals of getting feet washed off with cold water?

Chloe's bad mood from having to go inside for lunch changed pretty quick after hearing me crack up and make a big to do about the cold water from the hose.

So now, I know what I was doing on the 10 year anniversary of September 11.

Sadly, this was also the day 4 years ago that the decision that my mom would be taken off of the ventilator in ICU would be happening on Sept. 12th.

Hard to believer that 4 years ago, we lost her.

4 years ago, pregnant with Chloe.

2 years ago, pregnant with Riley.

6 years ago we were fixing drainage issues with my dad in the garden…

 I hope in two more years, we will be out enjoying the garden all together.

Maybe even having a cook out with family and friends.

I sure would like to have a back yard fire pit for roasting marshmallows…

Thanks for stopping by for a bit of garden hang time.

We'll see when I can get some of my MG friends out when it not so rainy, wet and cold...

Garden Help Please!!!

Right now my main hill garden looks like this:

Very overgrown and a bit unkept.

I blame the peak summer heat and humidity…

And wanting to stay in the air conditioning.
Perfect time to refocus on my business too (I've got to have an income right?)

Things seemed to be doing great in May and June...

This is a bed I that I had planted last year with a bunch of divided cone flowers…

Some Russian Blue Sage and Hostas to fill in lower areas.

I looked closer and saw that the Purple cone flowers had Aster Yellow.

It was a hard and deflating decision,

but all my coneflowers had to come out.

Two Huge wheelbarrows full from this bed alone.

This other front bed - I need to keep an eye on.

Lots of flowers in there that can also get it.

The point is, that it has somewhat deflated me...

Cone flowers have been my favorites in my garden in the last couple of years…

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With this kind of beauty is it hard to see why?

Especially when I look back and see what our house looked like when we first moved in:

All of this was to be ripped out...

I could see bits of a stone face on the house (love stone)...

The hill in between us and the neighbors was completely overgrown and you would slip and tumble down it if you tried to go through the overgrowth (which was filled with poison ivy).

The top of the driveway...

The future main side hill garden...

Hard to believe this is what it looked like in 2005 when we moved in.

I saw potential there…

Hard to believe this is that same "main side hill garden".

The one in the very first photo up top, just after being cleared of trees.

I made Dave take a photo of me in the garden once the retaining walls were installed and I first started to put some plants in...

I cut in the walking path steps.

Eventually removed this walkway when we replaced the driveway…

Used the leftover wall pavers to create some smaller beds and installed a flagstone patio...

Saying we had water issues (the house is mid-way down a hill) just barely touches the surface.

This is my dad - up visiting us from Florida...

The very man that instilled my sense of "if you are going to do something, do it right".

We fixed the grade and drainage, replaced a basement well window with block, resealed the basement wall, and that was just over a long weekend…

Then a few years later, after removing an old nasty cracked concrete slab patio out back...

Drainage issues arose again. The contractors messed with the drainage that we worked so hard to fix, and installed a pop-up drain right at the property line in the line of the natural swale. In addition, the new neighbors had thankfully removed some huge White Pines that were planted 20+ years ago, way too close to our house causing roof mold & mildew issues in addition to costing $500 every 3-4 years to cut back. So the combination caused a small river to form and wash away soil and sediment into their driveway.

We had to route the drainage to the curb. Not my first choice, but there was nothing else to be done with the way the land works.

Now I have these river rocks and a bunch of plants as a start of a rain garden.

Slowly yet surely, we are getting there…

I hope to find peace again out in my overgrown garden.

I think it is time for me to really get the weeds pulled…

Get rid of any infected plants (with Aster Yellows)…

And layout a mostly native plant garden area that has a bit of design to it…

To this end, I wait to hear back from some new MG friends to see if they can come give me a hand with my garden. To help laugh and pull weeds and talk about plants and potential and experience.

To put more memories into this garden with people that will hopefully be around to watch my kids grow up from little kids into adults with gardens of their own.

The thought alone of having friends with me here, makes me want to be out there again for getting my hands dirty. 

Darn that Aster Yellow…

You have no power over me with my friends by my side!