July in Pictures pt. 4

Remember those sentences I wrote about a night in by myself? Well...I grabbed a camera during that particular evening I was writing about and snapped some pictures during my wander. Here they are, recording the progress of my little garden as of July 30, 2016. The peas were in the height of their production, the cucumbers were JUST starting to take off, and the zinnias were picked bare. The light was just right and I had time to myself.

Years ago, I met this guy while I was on vacation in Baltimore. We talked and swapped info and continued our friendship long distance. My Mom asked about him the other day when I was taking her to work which got me thinking back on that time. Well, the two of us lived VERY different lives, but he was trying to get his life back on track and we had Christ in common. He used to call me after a long day and we would chat about life and our faith and soooo many things. One night, he called and I was out in the garden, so I took the phone out there with me. He asked me what I was doing and I think he might have laughed when I told him I was working in the garden.

I never thought of it as being odd, but I guess maybe it was. There I was 22 or 23 and my idea of relaxing was spending time in the front flower bed deadheading petunias and trimming back the geraniums. That hasn't changed. It's peaceful and calm and there are few places I'd rather be than stooped over things I've planted and tended and nurtured.

Remember that hole I mentioned? As of July 30, it was still there. :) As of today, the cucumbers spread right over it (I never did set my cucumber trellis up this year) and have been threatening to use the pea trellis on the one side while crowding out the zinnias on the other.

I brought mint from our other house with me and plunked it down into the dirt here. So far, so good. I'll take a cutting off of it wherever I go!!! It's from the ranch and my friend Heidi gifted it to me during what I think of as one of the best summers of our lives. Tending it and smelling it and seeing it makes me happier than I can say.

So, there you have it...A wander through my garden just before the sun set on July. AND the conclusion on the July in pictures series.

From A New Garden

June 3, 2016

I just came in from working in the garden. I have a fine layer of dirt on my face, one wet knee, and the sore spot I get between my shoulders from stooping is talking to me again. This morning seemed like the perfect time to check my plants, do some weeding, and set the sprinkler up. I filled a little bucket with a few weeds and worked a little bit more on clearing out the clumps of dead grass that are along the edge of the garden.

My work out there started about a month ago. I began the way I always do, sitting in my chair dreaming about what should go where. Making that decision is the hardest part. When the weeds started popping up, I took a hoe to them and knew that it was time to get a few steak knives and a bucket of some kind. Now, with bucket and knife, I go out about once a week or so to collect any weeds that I see.

In the meantime, I've been leveling out the soil and planting. I'm still trying to figure out what will go where, but so far, I've planted zinnias, cucumbers, chives, and peas. I have four cuttings of mint in a vase of water on the kitchen counter so that they will send out some roots. I've filled the window boxes with petunia seeds and the old barrel planter with a packet of wildflower seeds. I'm looking forward to going over to Suzanne's to learn more about gardening in this area. She's promised me some herb starts and I think those will do well in the little raised bed.

There's a big hole in the very middle of the garden and everyone keeps asking me when I'm going to fill it in. I haven't filled it in yet and I don't know what I'm waiting for. I'll get around to it eventually. Maybe when I decide what should go there. I've hauled my two little watering cans, my small metal table, my fencing trellises, and my garden markers here from my garden at the other house. The watering cans and table have homes in this new garden now and my sister helped me set up one of the trellises. And it's actually starting to look like a garden.

Every week, something new turns up reminding me of the people who tended this yard before me. There were tulips and pansies and some phlox. Now the snapdragons and a white rose bush and a plant I can't identify are doing their thing. The leftovers of last year's alyssum that came up in the window box outside my bedroom started blooming this week.

It's June and gardening season is here. They don't feel like "my" garden or "my" yard yet, but I expect that they will pretty soon.