So finally we have some extra money and I have the time to fix up the backyard flower beds. There is nothing back there except mulch (they are nicknamed "the mulch gardens" for a good reason). Of course there's that whole issue of us moving by the end of the year which adds an interesting dimension of we want everything to look great but I hate to sink a lot of money into plants that I love (you should have seen the gorgeous $40 blue hydrangea bush at the nursery) if we aren't going to be here much longer.
On a whim, I rented a tiller from Home Depot yesterday. Mostly because I knew I would need help getting it in and out of the van at home and Greg "moved" to Maryland today (*sobs*). The weather yesterday? Rain... And we have lovely clay soil here. My arms and back still hurt. But an hour with the tiller was much better trying to hand turn all that heavy wet clay soil by myself (days and days of work, I'm sure).
Since I was on a gardening roll when I returned the tiller I bought wooden edging material for "the-soon-to-not-only-be-mulch-gardens." And then I bought bushes at the nursery (because Home Depot's looked really sad). Course I got the wrong bushes and ran out of edging material but I fixed all those problems this morning. Again, in the rain...
The plan is to use the bushes I bought along the back of the house and then plant annuals from seed (wish me luck on keeping Ranger out of the dirt) and split some perennials from the front yard to fill in (hostas and small yellow "Stella D'Oro" lilies). If the seeds fail, I suppose I'll buy bedding plants (which just seem like such a ripoff for the price). And in the end, we'll have a lovely landscaped backyard! (I hope...)
Quote of the Day: "Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it." -Author Unknown
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