One of my newfound hobbies is gardening.
Stress relieving, heart pumping, calorie burning gardening.
Like raising children, gardening is a task that never ends. . .there is always something to do.
Unlike raising children, it's something you can do when you want to, feel compelled to, need time to peruse wanted or unwanted thoughts parading around your head, or have to in order to avoid causing physical, bodily harm to another human being.
Gardening, blogging, yoga. . .I am so seeing a pattern here.
Much of what we have in terms of gardens are completely because of Stephen's hard work and industry.
I've just started picking up my fair share of the gardening work.
And thus enjoying the results far, far more than I had in the past.
For example, we had planted several clematis plants, only to have each one wither and die.
Finally, with advice from an old Mennonite friend of Stephen's we planted it in the most unlikely of places.
The corner of the house.
And it is starting to flourish.
Of course, it doesn't look anything like my mother's clematis, which is sporting at least 100 buds.
Nothing has bloomed yet, but when it does, I'll be driving to my parent's place to take pictures of it.
Dark purple blooms. . .it is so beautiful.
I hope ours will be the same.
We have a large yard. . .this is the side view coming around the corner.
And the front coming into the driveway.
The front houses several varieties of plants, and is where I've been concentrating much effort over the past couple of weeks.
First, removing the invasive-ground-cover-from-hell-that-took-over-everything.
I know it looks pretty, but it was ALL over the front yard, choking out the other ground covers, in particular this nice tangeriney colored flowered one.
This is all that was left when I rescued it from the other ground cover. But, it's starting already to create new growth.
I just have to make sure it doesn't start taking over.
When we were married, Stephen's cousin Darene and her husband Dan, who are avid gardeners if what Stephen tells me is to be believed, sent us a rain gauge for a wedding present.
We love it because it means we can always see if it rained overnight, even if the pavement is dry.
Stephen found a bird bath several years ago. From spring to late fall it sits outside. In the winter it lives in the basement.
And if I can become remotely efficient with the camera, I may even be able to manage to get pictures of the bird's using it.
We have our usual hanging basket. Stephen picked it out this year.
The back. . .well, it needs lots of work. . but there are several gardens back there as well.
As well as the pods.
What you probably call composters.
They're open because it rained a lot over the weekend and everyone knows that water is very important for composters to do what they're supposed to do.
One of the reasons the spearmint and rhubarb look like they're on steroids is because of their proximity to the composters.
In fact, we have to take out a lot of the spearmint, so if anyone is interested in having some, just let me know.
We are MORE than willing to share.
Among our other backyard plants are:
The very hearty periwinkle:
Donkey's tail. Em picked this out from a garden center ages and ages ago. It comes back every year.
Lamb's ear. The kids had a think about plants with animal names.
Sand cherry, which looks gorgeous with it blooms.
But you can see there's lots and lots of work. What we really need is a professional landscaper.
Unless we sell one of the children, the likelihood of this happening is slim to none.
But, we plod along and do what we can, hoping each year that things improve.
In addition to providing a great place for the dogs to run, the farm also has the most beautiful rhododendrons I've ever seen.
Each year we take several trips to the farm just to look at them.
If you can get to the farm, and you have never seen them, you should go while they're still in bloom.
But watch out for the mosquitoes.
I incurred several bites trying to get a close up of a lilac.
Em is on her way to work in a little while and after dropping her off, Stephen and I will be taking a walk downtown.
Avec the camera.
More pics to come.
Who knows when the novelty will wear off and what I will end up catching on film before it does.
Muwahhhhahahahahahahahahahaha. . . .
Title Lyric: Flowers in the Window by Travis
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