A new garden

One of the glories of an old place is finding all kinds of hidden treasures like these flowers. This year the daffodils were gorgeous and plentiful. We love the privacy this bank gives us, while the neighbor would love to see it cleaned up, I'm assuming from his hints. He told us this used to be a prize garden tended by a gardener every day. I would loved to have seen it.

I guess it would be nice if our neighbor could have a nicer view from his front porch.

Now it's wild with overgrown forsythias and flowering quince, climbing roses and flowers hidden here and there and hard to dig. Yet there is beauty in this brush.

I tried digging for this red bush tonight, is it an azalea or flowering quince? For starters, there was a vine climbing around it that I tried removing with my bare hand till it dawned on me that it was poison oak. I went to the house and rinsed my arm and hand with bleach water hoping to get rid of the oils.

Then I grabbed a pair of clippers and gloves and went back to work. The bank is SOOO STEEP and it is very hard to dig while maintaining your balance. It got dark on me, so we'll try to dig for this beauty another day. A nice pruning will do wonders.

 

This is an old timey flower. Does someone have a name for it? It reminds me of baby's breath. Do you notice the poison - those shiny red leaves growing around it?

There are some nice tall lilac bushes hidden amongst the brush. If only I could haul the entire bush to my new garden plot. At least I'll get a new shoot.

Up the hill we go to the project we've been working on this past month. My adrenaline starts going when I think of how this will look in a few years. I absolutely LOVE flowers while my girls prefer working with veggies. Maybe they got burned out with flowers from previous years.

Anyhow, it's been several years since we grew vegetables and a big perenniel garden so I'm all excited!

We've been collecting rocks the past several weeks. It was a bit easier to see them in the field before the rye was so tall.

My husband and I started with a garden plot and I thought a border with flowers would be nice. That way 'maybe' I can keep those weeds away. The garden would look terrible with weeds if I had a nice bed beside it. So I transplanted some perenniels. I figured flowers with a garden. I can deal with it. It motivates me more to keep my vegetable garden neat. I've never been good at that, but this year will be different.

My idea: a rock wall with an arbor of fall clematis as you enter the vegetable garden.

I kept dreaming and before I knew it, I tilled a plot for my flowers the same size as the garden. As I type, the ideas keep flowing. My dream is to 'build bigger' but I best keep it small and neat rather than large and unkempt. For now I need to fill this huge space with flowers.

Last night I moved irises. I know it's a little late to be moving these bulbs. The worst thing is I'll probably have no blooms this year. I plan to move all the flowers from the bed beside the garage and seed that one into grass. The briars are bad at that spot anyway and then I can pour all my energy into this one. Another dream: eventually build a house on the hill. For now, it's just a dream and that doesn't cost anything! With this economy, you can't count on a whole lot right now.

 

The girls have been busy mowing lawn and rye and saving the clippings for the garden and the compost pile. We still have a mountain of leaves to rake in the woods.

Two night ago my husband and I got the urge to seed grass seed beside the garden and bushes along the neighbor's fence. We decided a little scratching of dirt with the rake will be good enough for us rather than working all the soil up. We were blessed to use loose straw that was left here by the farmer. Now we just need some rain.

While we're working, we can enjoy seeing this beautiful mountain and clear blue sky!

We do have what appears to be close neighbors, but it's actually just a weekend house and we rarely see anyone here.

 

We have had so much fun working up those flabby muscles and getting good and sore with trying to establish this piece. It is very satisfying. I've been going to the chiropractor quite frequently the past couple weeks and my back is getting much better. Also, my thumb is healing very well, praise God. He led me to a chiropractor who has used science to aid in healing. I told him God gets the glory for all the healing!

We planted some veggies on Good Friday weekend. The onions, red beets, and red potatoes are poking their heads.

We busied ourselves today transplanting flowers but I think we were a little crazy because it was very windy, and it probably dried the roots a bit too much. The girls watered and helped dig and plant. Hopefully, we won't lose too many. I just want the stuff done and planed in the right place.

I've already changed my mind on position for the flowers I planted a month ago. So I need to move those as I want to plant some bushes from our overgrown hill beside the road. But that's the joy of gardening! You can always move things around.

I am grateful to my friend who informed me more on a nice easy compost bin. You can visit her blogs here and here.

Today the girls and I were digging or trying to dig a level perimeter for our compost pile. We had blocks with holes left over from an old barn we tore down. Then we want to place them on a level area to have a neat looking compost bin. There - it's free. We also have a Compost Tumbler, but if this big pile does the trick, then this one will be for sale.

The other day Amber and I went for our first load of blocks. We took the four wheeler and trailer, piled too many blocks on - maybe about 20 - bumped over the uneven field, ended up where we wanted the blocks to be only to discover the tire had come off the rim.

The trailer was too light, the blocks too heavy, and the field too rough and we were without a trailer cart for a couple of days while the tire was at the 'doctors'. Now we'll have to wait for Merv to help us haul the rest of the blocks with something that can withstand the conditions a bit more.

As the sun was going down and shining on this cloud, we were reminded again how blessed we really are: we have a family who enjoys working together, our children have a dad and mom who have stayed together and will never separate until death do us part, we have hands and feet that move, eyes to enjoy the beauty, plenty of food, freedom of religion, and the list is endless.

 

What a lovely spring day! And in case you're wondering, we did plant some twigs from Arbor Day Foundation and that's what's in the wire cages. Hopefully, they'll grow to be this pretty.