Grandma Garden

When we were looking for a house I really wanted a yard where I could construct a rambling flower garden.  Bam!  I landed a half acre, mostly lawn.   I had a vision of etching out several feet from the side of the house around the front, capturing the large shade tree.  It was to be a garden with walking paths in and around interesting things to look at and sniff, something for my grandkids to think back and remember.

So here we have my empty canvas...

But first my husband was hell bent on getting rid of the trees brushing up against the house.  I came home one day and my precious yard looked like THIS

 With the trees out of the way it opened up the side of the house.  There is a natural curve to the terrain that loops around the two stumps and the dogwood further down.

The previous owner did have a patch of iris and day lilies toward the back of the house.  I will eventually transplant them around the rest of the garden, but I have to admit the burst of color this spring was pretty stunning.

 

When we took down the trees we had a TON of wood chips.  Had we gone about this with better planning I would have dug up the grass, laid down a layer of something to block the weeds then pile on the woodchips.  Alas I had to scramble to move the chips into place so they just went on top of grass.  This will pose some very predictable problems later on.

In the front of yard I added stepping stones and a pretty heart plant hanger (found in the garage).  A busy hummingbird feeder and a nearly dead climatis that perked up after planting.

And then came the day Mr Tree Hater proclaimed that the roots are hitting the sewer and the 50 yr old oak tree and pretty shade tree need to come out.  I protested but money talks around here and the sewer line won out.  Dammit.

So in preparation, my mom and I dug up all of the bulbs we had planted a year earlier and moved them closer to the house.

Eventually my garden was "etched"

I ran out of stepping stones...

 And my hand-me-down stand for a bird bath stood without a bowl...

Then the ugly bumpy edging bricks that filled the yard were repurposed and laid on their side (turns out the mower can to over them fairly well.

Notice the huge scar my missing shade tree left behind?

 This spring the bulbs came up, a couple flowered.  The climatis took off like crazy in its new spot

Then my dogwoods bloomed - amazingly the pretty pink one is inside the garden

Oh hey, look we finally got a bowl for the bird bath

And then the grass came in

 It got tall and scraggly

So I spent endless days pulling and yanking grass.  I never did get it all.

Then that stupid climatis decided to die so I hung a fern in the heart.  AND THE DAMN THING CAME BACK TO LIFE.  

My mother-in-law moved and left me all of her bricks.  We laid them out along the side of the house as stepping stones.  This project is not complete, so I will have many more updates.  Just wait to see what we have planned for them.

I took our three tomato pots and filled them with flowers this year.  That was definitely a smart move adding color and archetecture to the garden.  OH, and look at the rocks!  Someone was tearing up their yard and asked if I wanted them - uh YES.

And Dahlia's bloomed!

This is the view from the rear of the house.  The boat definitely makes it a grandma garden - the whole goal for this to be for a place for the kids to wander and play and learn.

Directly behind the house is the rose garden and a "field" of black eyed susans.  They will eventually move around to the side of the house, but not this year.

A week ago we took down yet another tree, but definitely a good idea since it was dying - Look at that hollow stump!  I'm keeping this one and it will be a planter next year.

Last fall's pumpkins (four pie pumpkins and one jack-o-lantern) died a slouchy death on my front porch and their carcasses were escorted unceremoniously to lie in front of the day lilies.  I've enjoyed watching them sprout and now am leading their vines toward the front of the house

 And the grass is coming back

A fun little addition standing watch at the front of the house

 

 I'm having a lot of fun with this garden.  Other chores around the house and the rest of the yard keep me from really putting the time necessary to pull it together, but it's coming along.  I can't wait to see what it does next year!

Cleaning and Organizing

I've encountered several people who pride themselves in their ability to throw things away.  Being a lifelong packrat/family historian/boarderline hoarder some of these trashcan fillers outright horrify me.

One of the most painful things for me to find in an antique store are old pictures.  Why didn't the family keep these treasures?  Did they not care?  Did they not know what to do with them?  Was there even anyone left to pass the pictures to?  How dreadful that my great grand children might possibly not appreciate the stack of old faces I have so carefully collected and charted on our family tree.

And then I remember there is a whole breed of people out there who have no space in their sparse lives for old things.  If something is tattered it feels dirty.  Who wants dirt and grime in their pristine homes?

Recently I've had to come in behind such a people in different situations.  While coming in after a non-organized person who never throws anything away is a lot of work, there are many gems to be found in the depths.  Perseverance pays off.  Behind the tosser is... nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  It is sparse.

More often than not the sparseness reveals only what the tosser wants you to see.  It's manipulative. It doesn't answer my question, it answers only what they want to reveal.  When I seek coloring books I'm offered blocks; when I need wheels I'm offered pegs; when I hope for explanations I'm given emptiness.  It's bleak.

Another trait I find with tossers is a lack of organization.  It's easy to sort three items, it's overwhelming to deal with thirty.  I know a woman who hates clutter so much that cleaning  involves either tossing or hiding.  When visiting her son's home she tried to put dishes away, driving her daughter-in-law insane because the small plates and cups and bowls were UNDER the larger items.  WHO DOES THAT?  At first the daughter-in-law wondered if it was an intentional act to alienate her but no, it was done in other places in other ways.  Then DIL started to look around the in-law's house.  It was neat and tidy but not organized.  Drawers and cabinets revealed a mishmash of disjointed items.  I know one woman who can't handle seeing dirty dishes so much that she actually throws away dishes.  My inner cheapskate is outright astonished at such an act!

I know that not all tossers are unorganized but I'm finding more and more the two traits go hand in hand.

My beloved sister-in-law and I had a conversation around this topic yesterday.  In describing my style of cleaning and organization, "My office may look like a tribe of rapid monkeys were set loose but all of my drawers and cabinets are very orderly."  Even as a kid when my mom stood in the doorway proclaiming my room looked like a pigsty and pondering which are clean clothes how I ever find anything - trust me, I knew.  I have a process and don't fuck with it.  My layers of clutter are merely waiting patiently to be organized.

I'm sure somewhere between clutter-waiting-for-organization and bleak-sparseness is a happy medium.  I'm quite happy in my cluster of stuff, just don't ever tell me if I haven't touched it in three months I don't need it. 

Much Ado

I was filling out a profile today that asked for my blog address and so here I am, checking in.  Please don't think for one minute that I have forgotten my favorite room on the internet.  I have to much to share and none of it earth shattering.

Well, wait a minute, one announcement is ginormous!  My son has been accepted to a big 4 year university!  This is big for any kid, but this one, the one who has so-so grades and a mediocre ACT, it is monumental, especially for this particular school.

At the moment it's snowing.  We haven't had nearly as much white stuff as we did last year and nothing like the east coast has experienced.  That said, this one looks like a doozy, at least for us.