Gardening

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon cleaning all the dead stuff and fresh weeds out of one of the flower beds, uncovering the perennials that have poked thru. Or, the cone-flowers that have taken over the bed completely. I tried to thin them out a bit, planted some petunias, and mulched the flower bed. Only got one done.

The whole time, I was NOT enjoying myself. I thought about my grandma dean and how amazing her backyard always was when we were growing up. Gorgeous plant life, everything perfectly placed, looking great, fabulous. She must have worked so hard on that, she and grandpa. Because it is hard work just doing my stupid flower bed that is NOT great.

Apparently she has the green thumb and passion for gardening that did not get carried onto me.

I don't mind digging holes, sticking a plant in. I don't mind watering (when I remember). I love pretty flowers and I love fresh vegetables (I'm hoping still to get some small version of a vegetable garden put in somehow). But I hate weeding. I hate cleaning out the flower bed, cutting back the old stuff.

And I have a real love-hate relationship with the cone-flowers. They fill the bed, they look pretty in all their pink glory. But they have choked out some other things, and by mid July, they look like they burst into flames and are all burnt-looking! Then they are just ugly the rest of the summer. I dug up a bunch of them, gave some to the neighbors, gave some to the trash can. I'm hoping I did it right and therefore successfully weeded out some of them!

So this is what I accomplished yesterday:

And aren't the phlox in the "bearclaw" (that's the shape of the area around the tree by our driveway) looking great?

But.... this is still what I have to contend with:

And see that little bunch of color in the middle of that mess? It is these:

They pop up all over. They're like miniature pansies. I'm sure they have a real name. I wonder if I might be able to dig this bunch up? Maybe I'll stick it in that pot that is empty, by the "done" bed.

Now the thing about the flowerbed that is not done. It's in front of our porch. And in the middle of it lies the hidden beast that is our own "Little Shop of Horrors" Plant. It is a GIGANTIC hibiscus. The thing gets huge. Once it springs up, it will grow a few INCHES a DAY until it is full grown. And full grown it is almost as tall as me and about 5 feet around. We have to tie it up, and anchor it to the deck rails to help it keep from breaking in the Kansas wind, as well as help to keep at least a little of our sidewalk traversable! I'll have to try to document this for you in pictures. It's amazing. We dug it up from our old house when we moved, chopped the heck out of the roots while doing so, stuck it in a garbage bag in our garage for months when we moved. Then we planted it out there, and it's been a maniac of a plant ever since. There are two other hibiscus plants in this bed as well. They don't get nearly as big. And I try to stick some other stuff in there, but it all gets pretty well taken over by the Monster anyways. That little edge along the sidewalk that is in front of the paver stone, I usually put in petunias. I should do something else there. Not sure what. The middle section gets eaten up by the Monster anyways. I wonder if phlox would do good along there?

And we haven't even looked at the backyard, have we? Well.... not much to look at, but hoping that will change this spring/summer. I think we're going to do some work/landscaping around the playhouse/swing set area. As a matter of fact, we've come up with some extra money to pay for it, so we should get to work on it as soon as we get home from the Big Trip.

In the meantime... if there are any gardening fairies reading this post.... feel free to come get this bed done for me!