Tomorrow is our 27th wedding anniversary! Oddly enough, today while Rhiannon and I were running errands, I happened to look down at my less-than-two-year old engagement and wedding ring set only to see that one of the stones was missing! Having just passed the jeweler where we purchased the set, I decided to go back to get it checked. Turns out it will be a fairly inexpensive fix and I'm glad!
Upon returning home, I lost no time getting out into the beautiful day to work in the English garden. All the gardens need attention and it seems overwhelming this time of year. I was astonished at the amount of debris I raked and pulled away in the beds. This is only the tip of the iceberg. This flower bed is out of control. I don't know if I've ever seen it this "needy." This is even after Kori and I worked last fall on transplanting and I think I remember doing some clean-up then. It never ceases to amaze me how many stalks and leaves are leftover in the spring no matter how diligently you clean the garden in the fall.
I set to work and actually got all the beds raked. It was so tempting to jump from one area to another as I saw the desperate need everywhere. I barely knew where to start or where to end. I bet I worked more than 2 hours out there, hauling several wheelbarrows full of stuff to the fencerow. And debris is not the only problem. This winter was especially hard on the black plastic in the pathways and the mulch that covers it. It will need to be replaced. I finally got black plastic down in all the paths last summer and thought that task was finally over. After this afternoon's work I am seriously thinking of hiring a young person to help me put this all in order and get it over with. If I don't, with the other flower garden, the vegetable garden, the chicken coop flowers, and the landscaping flowers, I'll never be done. I'll be fighting a losing battle all summer.
After raking and weeding, I got the little tiller out and ruthlessly dug up a couple of areas where grasses and invasive plants have taken over. I have decided to transplant some of the beautiful old fashioned pink roses that seem to flourish and endlessly throw out shoots into these trouble areas. These roses were given to me and grow abundantly. I figure I might as well capitalize on that feature.
Part of the gardening problem in our area is the fact that once we get a nice spring day like today, you can hardly tackle all the stuff that needs doing. And when these kind of days start, they often come one on the other very rapidly and then so do the weeds. Before you can get the raking and arranging done, the weeds are already overgrowing everything.
I have worked for all the years we've been here on amending the soil in the flower garden as well as the vegetable garden. This soil around the house is a pretty heave clay. The flower garden was originally part of the yard, sown into grass seed. I took the large tiller and after planting three trees in that area I swung the tiller around those trees creating curved beds based on the placement of those trees, one of which did not live. What I really did was create a monster! Since it was already sown in grass seed, I have fought sod and grass in the beds ever since. And we're talking about a HUGE flower garden. It looked bigger to me today than ever before! Well, it is. Last year I added a whole new bed, the "rose section." Now I wonder why. The grass problem is no different this year and I actually think it's worse. Last fall I dug up huge portions of the beds and shook and pulled the sod away from flowers and replanted the flowers. Some beds did not get finished and that's what I'm up against again this year. In addition to that I've never been able to create a suitable border to the flower bed. I hauled small rocks from the fencerow and placed them around the perimeters. The grass of the lawn growing up around them is a continuous challenge. It should be trimmed with each lawn mowing, but that doesn't always happen and they get swallowed up. Today I removed some of the rocks and tilled up the sod and replaced them. It should be done on the entire perimeter. As I remember the abundance of flat limestone fences in England and the southern states, I am jealous that we only have boulders to work with here. I can see myself building a tall border fence of nice, flat stones if they were only available! I dream of "containing" this garden in a tall stone fence.
The inner beds are built out of a layer of wood chips, with chicken coop rakings over that and topped with pure compost of leaves obtained from a local composting site. They are very rich indeed, but that means the weeds love them too!
Isn't it amazing how something so beautiful can take so much time and work. It's like our lives. God is wanting to work on us to create something beautiful. We often can't see the results until we look back over time and realize how far we've come and how we've grown in certain areas. It's like my flower garden. All I can see is the problem spot in front of me as I kneel down to weed, or the massive-ness of the whole never-ending project. But then I remember that 5 years ago this entire property was a cornfield and now it has a nice house, barn, and gardens. That's an accomplishment! Like the garden, we are a work in progress. Let's be patient with ourselves; God certainly is. We are being changed from glory to glory! Favorite flower clue: It has a tendency to re-seed itself profusely. Blessings, LORI
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