New Garden

We had this dead space behind our garage. When we bought the house, the space was basically a junk heap. There was a lot of wood, dead branches, rocks, garbage cans, and just junk there. The sapce is in the back corner of the lawn, with a very large oak tree shading most of the area. There is chain link fence on two sides and the garage on the third side. For years the kids have talked about doing something to make it their space, but things always seem to come up in the summer and nothing is ever accomplished with it.

Earlier this year my mother-in-law took Erin and Sarah shopping on several occassions and they purchased plants to put behind the garage. Each time they would bring home something new, Erin would go plant it. I knew she was planting stuff, but had no idea what or how much, until she begged me to look at it one day. I was rather impressed with her gardening skills, but the spring had been so wet that the back area had gotten flooded. The back part of the yard is somewhat depressed compared to the surrounding areas, so water seems to pool there for days after really heavy rains. I suggested a water loving bush or something, so we set out and found one right before I got sick. So this poor tree had been sitting in a pot in the back for over a month. It is looking very, very sad, but Kyle and the girls planted it yesterday, then Erin cut it way back. I really hope it comes back okay! When we bought the tree, we also got several bags of mulch.

I have been banished from work for 10 days, so I have lots of time, and nothing (that I am allowed) to do. I took a lawn chair out yesterday and sat at the edge of the kids new garden and directed. I can do that without physical exertion! Here are the pictures I took (mostly) from my lawn chair.

This is the area closest to the garage, before the mulching.

The first row of landscape fabric, and two bags of mulch…

Cousin It decided to drop by for a while…

Kyle’s hands turned really red…

Cousin It left and Sarah decided to join us, but then got on the phone and began playing with a hatchet… If talking on the phone is that bad, just hang up…don’t destroy the phone, lol!

Our neighbor, behind us, has a beautiful trumpet vine. I couldn’t resist a photo of the wonderful flowers.

Here is the garden, half finished. We got the nice flat stones from the woods where my parents live. Erin decided where to put them and I think she did a phenomenal job on the whole garden!

This is the same area that is in the first picture. Looks better, don’t ya think!?!

We went to the Garden Factory, earlier today, and got a couple more plants and more mulch to finish the garden. I, again, sat in my lawn chair and directed while the kids finished it up. It looks amazing! It is like a little pearl tucked away in the corner of an otherwise mudane yard. I will post pictures of the rest of the garden tomorrow. After I find the energy to take the pictures…

Oh, I forgot to mention that my Uncle Randy made the wiener dog for us. He used this great plastic-like paint on it, so it will hold up nicely in the weather. Thanks Randy!