Backyard Garden

I've mentioned my black thumb before - in fact since the last posting of me the gardening extraordinaire all but one of the plants have died. Yes dead as a doornail. Mostly due to the fact I forgot to water them. That and the stress of 100+ heat when they never were meant to withstand that also played a part in their demise, so I refuse to take full responsibility. ;-) However, with my son's first birthday party coming up I wanted the backyard to look nice and there was this looming pile of... nonsense in a corner - and I have twice previously gone over to tackle it and said... uh never mind. Wouldn't you? I mean look at it?

Yes, that ghastly pile of whatever was inherited when we moved here and I just ignored it and my husband mowed around it. It turns out once we got to hacking that it used to be a vegetable garden. Or at least there were a zillion little potatoes spawning beneath the surface when I started to hack into the soil... once we FOUND the soil. Yes I thought a little clawing at the weeds would be no problem for me. Um no this quickly turned into a family project and several tools where utilized. The weed whacker was brought out, the spade the metal rake, and most importantly the muscle.

Yes, Loving Husband happily jumped in to assist with the back breaking labor of moving stones broken pieces of concrete, that was at one point a wall, out of the way and then went to town attempt to find the earth beneath the madness. It was found and my oh my was it rocky and potato-y. There were several LARGE spiders that were less than pleased to have their home disturbed, but we trudged on through while Ace played with the dandelions in the yard. At the end of the day, we had a new wall built and an excellent planting surface awaiting some plants.

So Monday I headed to the local garden store and piled my cart with $25 worth of plants. I came home and got to work. As I was digging the holes for the plants I found a TON of rocks and so I set them aside to utilize later as a little decore around the plants. The potatoes ... well sadly they and their roots found their way to the yard waste bin. The end result was this! Even if it all dies, I'm just proud of the general landscaping accomplishment. It looks much nicer out there. Just in time for the BBQ for Ace's first birthday!

Gardening

Gran gave me this (once) beautiful climbing plant for Mother's Day (it hasn't been that long) when it came to me it had beautiful flowers all over it and was ALL green. It now still has some green... it is still "alive" but really the question is not how big will it get, or will it take over the yard, but moreover how long will it survive.

I have a black thumb. I'll just say it. I'm sure there's something that could be done about it. There are books that could be read, techniques that could be learned - but for the most part, plants come here to die and on the rare occasion I bring them here myself to do so. I don't TRY to kill them. But it happens. EVERY TIME. Sometimes they make it a while, some even make it a year or two (cactus) but eventually they all die.

So yesterday I decided that with all this beautiful sunny weather we've been having I'd like some color to stare at out on my deck. And so in a rare moment of "gardener" I headed to the store to procure a planter and some flowers. Sorry plants, when you left your nestled home in the garden department of Fred Meyer you probably thought you were going to flourish, to spread your roots... you never knew that my black thumb had come to collect to your imminent doom. Ok so it's not THAT bad, but it is true.

Yesterday, I procured these plants (the ones in the back like sunlight, I know that much at least) and then I also purchased an already planted planter that was on clearance - plants already doomed to die! So I wasn't totally euthanizing them by taking them home- they were on the chopping block already! I brought them home, filled the planter up and planted my flowers. They look so pretty (today). When they will expire only God knows - but me and nature don't get along so I suspect it will be far sooner in my household than in others, or in the garden department at Fred Meyer.

In other news, Ace is in much better spirits. Thank you everyone for your concern. He finishes his antibiotics today and has a follow up appointment for Thursday. He isn't sounding 100% yet. That cough is still pretty phlegmy and painful sounding but he doesn't seem to cry every time he coughs so I think he's well on his way to healthy. Sadly today he isn't able to go swimming - just to be safe for the other kids. So today we're just hanging out watching him walk around 5-11 steps at a time. :)