A Summer of Growing

One of my newly discovered hobbies since moving into our own home has been gardening.  I was never excited about it before now.  It probably had quite a bit to do with renting houses and not making the time to tend the garden.  Now gardening excites me.  I don't mind spending time outside pulling weeds, planting things and watching them grow and flourish.  It hasn't only been the vegetable garden that has captivated me, I have spent hours in the front garden.

I planted the front garden in April and May.  If you remember we started out with only a row of mums and rocks straight across the front of the house.

I worked with my dad and designed a front garden.  I enjoyed digging and planting (well, not so much the actual digging) and watching the garden come to life.

I spent the summer watering, moving plants around, adding new things, mulching, weeding and tending everything.  It was fun and I'm proud to say that everything is flourishing and looks quite different now.

I like looking out my front door and seeing the plants, especially the may-night salvia.  It has grown lush and thick.  Right now it's a haven for bumble bees.

The mums are almost in their prime.  I never really liked mums, but after learning what to do with them they've kind of grown on me.  I even bought two for my pots this fall and I am going to plant them in our backyard soon.

The honeysuckle vine and obelisk trellis were an end of season sale.  The vine was literally just a stick with some leaves when I brought it home.  The arborvitae bush by my stepping stone was also an end of season sale.  It has dead leaves in it, but I'm hopeful it will come around.

I decided not to put a border in when we put in the garden this spring.  Next spring one of our first projects will be to put a border in.  I have to weed-eat weekly to reclaim the garden from the yard.  It sends mulch flying and I still think the grass is slowly winning.  I'm a little undecided what kind of border I want and have not been in a huge rush this year to install one.

It's more evident here that the yard is winning, or maybe the plants are just too big now for the space I originally dug out.

I like the way the garden flows around to help hide the ugly retaining wall.

My barberry bushes are already quite a bit bigger and taking some of the focus away from the retaining wall.

One of my favorite things in the garden is the way the sedum has grown to fill the crevice between the rock and the wall, tying the rock into the garden.

One of Aric's favorite parts of the garden is the rock.  He loves standing on it and jumping off.  And, no, I don't make him wear a bike helmet to do that.