It's hard to believe, but I made the leap into gardening this week. I know, you're all shocked. But from the day we found out we'd be moving here, I was so excited to start planting flowers and have a pretty front yard.
However, I have a lovely habit of simply thinking about a project for a long time, imagining how hard it will be, and postponing it for as long as possible. By the time I actually start I realize that it's not as bad as I thought (most of the time).
Well, two and a half months later, I finally had the gumption to just to buy stuff. I used the excuse of my birthday to go to Home Depot and I bought three Azalea bushes, and a couple packages of springtime bulbs to plant as well. I bought two small hand tools, a watering can, and gardening gloves. I thought I was set!
Turning the soil (or should I more accurately say rock and clay mixture) was a lot harder than I expected. My little hand shovel started giving me cramps within the first half hour! A couple shovels from friendly neighbors were borrowed, and that helped a ton! I tackled huge roots and stumps, and with the help of another neighbor's axe, Ryan finally got the last stump out. They were very stubborn!!
Here's some pictures of the process. What I thought would be a one-day project of digging has turned into a five day giant of a project! But it has been so refreshing to work muscles my body had forgotten about, to feel productive, and to see the fruits of my hard work! The bushes look really little in the big open space ... but piece by piece I know we will have a beautiful front yard! I can't wait until springtime now to see all the beautiful blossoms!!
Our house
One of countless root systems I dug out - in the background in the stump Ry took the axe to.
Slowly working my way to the sidewalk. This is Thursday morning before the missionaries came.
My digging buddy.
My digging buddy making an angry face when I found yet another stump!
Cute action shot of trying to get the pacifier back in his mouth on his own.
Collection of treasures after digging (one of many, many piles!)
See that huge boulder next to the shovel? Yeah - I lifted that myself. I'm pretty much the stuff. :)
This is the Friday morning picture after all the digging was done. I spread the peat moss all around, mixed that in. Then I planted the bushes, and the bulbs went in Saturday morning. I'll take pictures of the finished product soon.
4 comments:
Whew! Makes you grateful that you live in an apartment with just a little patch of yard in front instead of jumping into a 2 1/2 acre piece of potential heaven. :) I guess part of being an adult is that you have to pick up rocks whether you've been good OR bad (that was such a hideous punishment!). It looks good -- way to DIG IN! Can't wait to see the finished product!
Love you!
The great thing about the DRDT --Digging Rocks Disciplinary Tool (I prefer to call it that rather than "punishment") is that we never ran out of rocks! I well remember our neighbor Toni Gideon saying, "These darn rocks -- you bury one and ten more come to the funeral!" I love your flowerbed, Heather -- isn't it amazing how great good clean dirt can be?
I'm impressed with your willingness and to do yard work. I wish Dave could go to help out with that. If it wasn't for him our yard would be scary looking. I can't wait to see your beautiful flowers next spring! Hey, I like the outside of your new home. Show us inside! :)
I'm impressed. Let's just leave it at that.
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