**warning. this is possibly the longest post in the history of posts about flower beds.**
On Saturday my husband announced he was going to dig a ditch.
He wasn’t kidding.
(He has a purpose here – he’s installing a French Drain that will hopefully make the water go away from our house and stop coming into our family room.) While he did that, I decided to dig up the other flower bed, since it has never grown anything in the entire 5 years we’ve lived here. Wait – that’s not true. It grows weeds quite well. So we thought that while we were digging all day, maybe mixing topsoil in to the other bed would help. You find all sorts of interesting things when you dig up your beds.
lots of rocks, bricks and even an old bottle
We also found a half-decomposed dead mouse. But I won’t show you that picture. Then my husband found this:
Full disclosure: I did not take this picture. I refused to even get close enough to use the zoom lens, despite my husband’s trying to reassure me by saying things like “It can’t jump! I think!!” Grace or Ellie took this while I was hiding at a safe distance. When he came over HOLDING IT IN HIS HAND, I ran away saying “THIS is why I don’t like gardening!!!!”
So anyway…. a typical flower bed at our house looked like this:
Since we got rid of all of the dead and soon-to-bed plants, I had to go get more. So I went to our secret place. Out in Amish country, there is a tiny nursery that friends told us about. Basically you drive down a road, turn right just after a locksmith and drive down a winding road lined with Amish Farms, past the Amish School with little kids playing hopscotch at recess – we had an actual chicken cross the road in front of us (talk about free range!) – and into a random driveway. Spring Grove Nursery is actually in the backyard of a little house. And its amazing. The entire trunk of my van was filled with flowers and shrubs and it was like $60.
Well after hours and hours and several Advils, we have this:
Now, I JUST planted this. That's why they are all still alive.
And check out our little container garden:
For their summer project, the kids are growing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes and red peppers. We’re so green 🙂
So if you’re actually still reading, share – what are your tips for keeping your plants alive?
! (And can we give a collective “THANK YOU” to Disney for the Blu-Ray/DVD Combo pack!? I don’t know about you, but I have children who do not understand the concept of “The blu-ray disc doesn’t play in the car!”) We’ve watched it at least three times and have loaned it out to two friends already.
. She’s barely put it down since she got it. Its been to a party, a picnic, the dentist and school. Just since Saturday.
