When I moved into my grandparents home in 2001, the North side of the house was horrible! Every time it rained, the North bedroom would flood. So, we brought in some dirt...top soil...or so we thought. We paid for top soil, but what we got was the dirt used to build roads...packing dirt! I planted a few flowers and they died. So, when I met my husband, who just happened to know a thing or two about landscaping (SCORE!) and I was telling him about the dirt, he laughed and said, "Well, I'll see what I can do." We went to my parents, got their HUGE tiller and went to work tilling the dirt. That was a JOKE! The tiller wouldn't even touch it! We put the water hoses on it for 4 days...went back and only got down about 2 inches. I was devastated!
But, my hubby, being the kind of man that will not let dirt beat him, went to work. In the back of the house, we have a 'worm farm'. Not by choice, but that's what it is. HUGE, big, yucky earth worms. He and the kids dug worms and tossed them over in the packing dirt. And, we waited. Those little guys went to work immediately! By the time Fall rolled around, we were able to plant some nice flowers for our wedding reception. I was happy.
Fast forward four years later, and I am amazed at what has transformed in our North Garden!!! There was a day or tiger lily on the South side of the house my grandmother had planted that was about to take over the foundation of the house. We dug it up, divided it out and planted the lilies in the North Garden. We started out with one plant and we now have about 30 tiger/day lilies in the garden and they are HUGE. Every summer we have a sea of orange and black lilies swaying in the summer breeze.
My hubby is a lover of roses. We had been dating for about 3 months when he and I went shopping. We decided to go look at the Garden Center and there, in the middle of all the flowers and plants was this little yellow rose bush. The only one that actually smelled like a rose and of course, there was this man looking at it too. I rushed over and grabbed that rose bush and took her home. My hubby planted it by our front door and now she is almost as tall as I am (5'5"), and she produces yellow roses all summer long. The next year, we bought 2 mini rose bushes and planted them in the North Garden. They have done okay, but not as well as I had hoped.
We built a waterfall and a pond in the North Garden. This yeas, we decided having TWO water features so close together was too much. They competed for center attention. SO, we kept the waterfall, and filled in the pond. In this pond, we now have all the mini rose bushes, some ornamental lilies, and right in the center, an Azalea that was given to my hubby and some of his co-workers for a "job well done". I am hoping the mini rose bushes will do better this year since they are now in soil and not packing dirt.
 |
| HUGE frog fan I am!!! |
My hubby is also a lover of Tulips! I would say Tulips are his favorite. Last year, we bought a couple bags of bulbs and planted them. I always thought tulips were a one time thing. But, they decided to stick around and as you can see, they are in full bloom!!!
We had planted a lot of different plants around our waterfall and last year's summer heat killed most of them. About the only thing that is attempting a come back are hostas, and tickweed. Everything else died. We bought some pansies, and a couple other plants for some color in that particular area. And, it is looking a lot better.
This is the entrance to the North Garden. You can see way in the back there our canopy, where we can sit and look out over the North Garden and into the back yard and wooded area. This photo was taken long before we got the garden cleaned up, so ignore that trash and accept my apologies!!! Anywho, right beside the arbor is another rose bush. We need to move it back about 2 feet so it will grow OVER the arbor and not over my Maple tree...or car! We built this last year when the one we did have, from our wedding fell over and crashed!
We have more work to do in the garden. But, when is a garden ever "done"? We even had one person tell us to "stop planting flowers". REALLY??? Stop planting flowers?? There are paths to create, there is a world of different varieties of flowers I have yet to buy. Gardening is a trial and error thing...if you can call it a 'thing'. No, I will never stop planting flowers in the North Garden or in any of our (future) gardens.
To answer the question above, I am not sure what it is about a flower garden that just makes a person go into total relaxed mode. When I am feeling overwhelmed by everyday life events, I can go out into my garden and everything just disappears. Maybe it's the colors of the flowers, the green of the grass, the pathways that may or may not lead somewhere special. Maybe it's the butterflies and humming birds. Maybe, just maybe, it's the love you feel. You can not create a garden and not have love. When you plant your flowers, you do it with love in your hands and in your heart. And the flowers know this. (Call me crazy, I don't care!) And when the flowers feel the love, they reward you with showers of colorful blooms that say, "I'm here for YOU". I don't know what it is about flower gardens that cause's a person to go into total bliss. I do know that whatever it is, it's great!
No comments:
Post a Comment