See-Sawing a Garden Project

One minute I’m up, the next minute I’m down. Maybe I’m breathing in too many spray paint fumes.

I’m working on a big project and other projects are suffering. But I know me. If I don’t finish this, it’ll fall by the wayside and I’ll never get back to it. I feel I could work 24 hours a day and I’d still feel behind and chaotic.

The current huge endeavor is gardening. The house already had two flower gardens on either side of the front door. They were 7 feet deep rectangles with one side longer than the other due to the house layout; plain, square-edged rectangles to a plain, square-edged house – boring and unappealing. 

It’s a bit exciting waiting to see what comes up, but in the meantime, I went to the local Agway a couple of times and spent way too much on annuals and perennials. Even before I had them all planted, I began making my own garden manual. If I want to look up a plant in my yard, I don’t want to thumb through hundreds I don’t have. My goal is to list every plant, have a write up about it (gathering info from websites on plants and plant care). A timely job for sure, as I’m also taking photos and adding pictures to better know the plants.

A couple hours a day I’m outside playing. The guy who built my garage helped me fix up a new flower bed in the middle of the lawn incorporating the crabapple tree that was already there. He did the cutting in and taking the grass off the top, then we mulched. I had already planted a couple of flowers in that area and we added a couple more. (My body just won’t handle that much physical labor any more.)

I’ve finished researching the plants I bought or brought from Bradford; although I eventually want to get photos of leaves and seed pods. There are a couple that if I don’t deadhead every day, I can’t tell if it’s a new blossom coming or a seed pod. Now I’m to the point of trying to identify what’s coming up in the older gardens. Some I recognize and some I don’t. Some I remember from last summer when I moved here: black-eyed Susan, goldenrod, yarrow, and, of course, I know roses, azaleas, and rhododendrons.

I’m learning that some plants like to be mulched up close while others like a couple of inches between the mulch and base of the trunk. There are different kinds of fertilizers for some while most do well with just Miracle Grow. I’ve even learned that coffee grounds are great to use around some. (‘Course I still have to look up which is which for now, but eventually I’ll remember and know.) 

Some plants want dry soil, some moist, and others need daily watering. I’m still struggling with if it says to plant in full sun, why do the plants wilt in the afternoon? There are plants that in these dry conditions need to be watered morning and evening (mostly those in pots and flower boxes). 

But I’m getting better and this property no longer looks like a cookie-cutter, boring-colored place. Oh, and the spray paint? I’m adding color to all the lawn ornaments, feeders, poles, and flower boxes. I intend for my yard to be bright, colorful, and happy.