Why We Take "Before and After" Pictures

I took a stroll down memory lane the other day and clicked through our "New House!" photo album from over three years ago. Boy did it make me feel good to see how far we've come.

I highly recommend this confidence-boosting exercise to everyone -- whether you're a gardener or not. Take a look at the very first photos you took when you moved into your current place, look at old photos of your kids, and definitely look at throwback high school and middle school pictures to feel the rush of pride at how much you've grown and changed since those pictures were taken.

After looking at pictures of our yard taken in the Spring of 2011, I feel like I can do anything.

The first picture is the earliest picture of the back yard that I could find.

Old deck, old dog run in the background and young pup in the foreground

Awww look how little Scout is! We moved the fence and gate to create a landscape side and a fenced-in garden side

Unfortunately, I haven't retired that "outfit" yet. Not really something to be proud of, but whatever.

The family before us used the back part of the backyard as a dog run, so I spent a couple of weekends digging up weeds and picking up large piles of dog poop

What I call the "wildflower patch" to the right of the garden beds

Inside of garden fence 2011. Hollyhock in left corner has now abundantly self-sowed through this area.

 Like I said in my first post back, I like to embrace growth and change. Especially when it looks like this:

View from deck in May 2014

Landscape in early June 2014 - green grass complements of a wet Spring

Full-grown Scout and always-growing landscape in July 2014

Landscape in July 2014

Inside of garden area with self-sowing Hollyhocks dominating, July 2014

Other side of garden fence, July 2014

Veggie garden in early June 2014

Garden in early July 2014

Wildflower patch and garden in 2014

Wildflower patch in 2012

Wildflower patch 2014 - Wild Four O'Clock below sunflowers

When we were visiting my in-laws in Wisconsin over Memorial Day weekend, my mother-in-law told me she gives me credit for getting anything at all to grow in our less-than-ideal gardening conditions. I replied humbly, "I give me credit, too!" It's a good feeling to allow yourself to be proud of what you've done. If I compared my little beginner garden to the those of more experienced gardeners, I'd never feel proud of what I've accomplished. So I say forget about comparing yourself to others; compare you to you and let yourself enjoy the pride of how you've grown and changed.

Hard Work Always Pays Off

Happy Summer Solstice! There is no better day than today to celebrate the joy gardening can bring to an individual, a family and a community. I've read and heard about the positive impact of gardening from so many people. Not only does the work of gardening provide a chance to sink into a meditative, happy place, but it also creates a bond between the person and what Aldo Leopold would call our land community (his renowned "land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land"). We learn so much about ourselves and our environment/community when we take the time to look and learn about our surroundings.

I've only been "gardening" for two years, so I'm as green as they come. I'm learning so many things that most experienced gardeners do in their sleep. I'm often guilty of creating a dream garden in my mind and forgetting all of the time, money and hard work that goes into that dream garden. I've recently learned that a garden is never "finished." You can never turn your back on a garden and expect it to thrive on its own -- no matter how hardy. Since we completed the construction and planting in the fenced-in garden/wildflower area, I've put very little time into the maintenance of it. I've been focusing all of my efforts on the landscaping of the area next to it.


Posing by the new addition to our family, Xeriscape. Lady (friend's pup) and Scout (ours) pose with us.

Now the garden area is crawling with weeds that are sucking up vital moisture and nutrients, giving nothing in return. Everyone has "weeds" in their life that choke and stifle growth. If we leave them be, they overrun us and all we've worked to build in our lives. Like friends, family and so many other vital parts of a happy life, we cannot turn our backs on one while we focus on another. I'm still working on this aspect of life and gardening.

This is what we've been doing while the garden sat neglected:

Plans for the entire backyard (bottom) and  xeriscaping (top).



Patrick spray painted an outline for the xeriscaping, edged it out and pulled up any grass in the area (all while I was at a Saturday morning Bat Mitzvah!)



A friend's help is priceless. Tyler came up from Denver to help us move the fill dirt.



The next day we put the weed barrier down.



Patrick and Scout pose by the new Xeriscape area.



3/4 inch river rocks were added and I began planting the xeric plants. I'm still planting. 13 more to go as of today.



To keep our sanity, we also took a short but relaxing camping trip in the Rockies.

I ordered around 30 xeric plants for the xeriscaped area and I have 13 left to plant. The planting has been taking a long time due to all of the prep work that goes into transplanting perennials. First, I rake and shovel all of the rocks from a 12-18x12 inch area, depending on the expected size of the mature plant. I then take a now-dull box cutter to cut away a circle of weed barrier cloth. Then, I shovel the clay loam fill dirt into a separate bucket and shovel  clay buster garden soil into the hole. I mix everything together with a "claw" garden tool, then plop myself down with the new plant and plant it in the fresh soil. Finally, I pull or rake the rocks back into place around the new plant. If I plant a few plants every night this week, it should be completed by the weekend.

Digging: Wildflowers

Thanks for being patient with this burgeoning blog! I've spent too many weekends focused on weeding and preparing the land for my dream garden. It was a little disheartening to see the slow, barely visible process of preparation, but, like the search for "solid ground" in the life we lead, the digging is hard work that must be done.
 After painstakingly digging out the myriad of weeds in what used to be the previous owner's dog pen, P restructured the pen to be the perfect size for two raised garden beds and a wildflower patch. All of the T-bars in the area we will be xeriscaping (gardening with plants that need little to no water) had to be removed and the wire fencing was re-attached to the remaining T-bars to fit the garden area. We left around three feet between each bed for a path and Patrick added flagstone stepping stones for the path between the garden beds and the wildflower patch.
 Before I had the patch weeded, I picked up some gorgeous single-flower hollyhocks from a lady who was thinning her hollyhocks for the spring. I came home with three fledgling hollyhocks and planted them near the North fence of the garden. Hollyhocks are extremely easy to grow, thrive in hot, sunny areas and need to be planted near a wall or fence for support because they can get up to eight feet tall.

Single-Flower Hollyhocks (the variety I have)

One of the Hollyhocks, planted end of April (pic taken end of May).



Double-Flower Hollyhocks


 A good friend gave me a packet of wildflower seeds as a gift when we bought the house. After getting the wildflower plot clear of weeds (for the moment, at least), P & I added garden soil, manure and compost to the plot and mixed them together with a garden rake. Then, P spread the seeds and we raked the soil again to cover them. I kept the soil wet for a couple of weeks and slowly the seedlings appeared. The only problem is that I'm having trouble telling the wildflower seedlings and weed seedlings apart! P's mom is visiting this week and she happens to be a super-weeder, so I'm hoping she can help me with determining what to pull and what to leave.
 On top of the wildflower seeds and the three hollyhocks, I picked up some perennials at the garden center to add some established flowers to the garden for near-instant visual intrest. Thanks to a generous gift card from the in-laws and a  Living Social 50% off coupon, I picked up three different types of coneflowers, one bee balm (aka monarda), three coreopsis (aka tickseed) and one agastache.

Coreopsis

Coneflowers

Agastache

Bee Balm

Both the coreopsis and the agastache require little water once they are established. The coneflowers and the bee balm are simple to grow, spread easily and require the same amount of water as the veggie garden and the seedling wildflowers.

Tip: Planting flowers/plants of similar water, soil and light needs in the same area simplifies maintence and reduces the chances of under- or overwatering.