All (Green) Thumbs

As you may have noticed, there hasn’t been a lot of “artsy/craftsy” stuff going on around here lately. I mean, aside from getting my wares ready for the sale last month, it’s been mostly snaps of everyday life. I *know* I should be working on my “art” regularly… But. There is always just SOSOSO much to do in the summer! (Who am I kidding. ALL the time, but still.) I’m having a hard time justifying spending the very few hours of “alone time” I get working on that kind of thing when the weather is actually nice, and I could be working out in my garden.

My poor, sad, ignored garden. Which only a few short years ago looked like this.

But which sadly, thanks to too many sleepless nights and a couple very needy children, turned into this.

The quack grass, dandelions, and thistles were everywhere. The neighbourhood rabbits and children had destroyed many of the actual plants. And things had just gotten well out of control. It was such a depressing and overwhelming sight for me, that I no longer sat out on the porch with my morning tea or afternoon journal. When I realized that I had missed the blooming of the tulips, the irises, and the poppies in entirety, I knew something had to be done. So, after a few failed attempts, I finally hired some people to come and weed for me.

After I spent several hours moving the bird bath and bench, all the statuary, and the manymanymany bricks, Mell and her crew came and weeded the front. It took three people a full day to get rid of all the weeds – and that’s only on the surface! It would have taken me the entire summer of working in my 2-3 hour stints to get that much done – and by then, a lot of the weeds would have returned. Plus, I wouldn’t have gotten anything else done! There are still bunches and bunches of weed roots underground, but at least I can see what I’ve got to work with. AND, at least the work has begun.

While the crew was busy surface-weeding, I root-weeded the plum tree and rebuilt the brick surround for it. I also built a big cedar box, which is to become my “flower bed” once I get around to adding the headboard. Over the next several days, I root-weeded and amended the soil in the box. I then transplanted some of the flowers from around the yard into it, adding a few new ones and some replacements to balance things out where necessary. Voila. A mini cottage garden!

When that was done, I was kind of at a loss for what to do next. I mean, I know what my eventual “plan” looks like, but it’s hard for me to see how to get from here to there. So, I just went out into the garden and started potting-up some of the plants I knew I wanted to keep. One. By one. By one. Some of the plants were bigger than the pots I had, so I started transplanting them into the ground around the box as well.

And by the end of the afternoon, the garden looked like this. It’s almost ready for some new raised beds (after more flower-transplanting, root-weeding, and soil-amending that is). But, whew. Things are happening! My hope is that the confined, raised beds (surrounded by fabric and mulch covered pathways) will make it easier for me to care for the garden. No more people running amok and compressing the soil or stomping on plants. Less overall surface area for the weeds to occupy. Plus, I can set about to weed one bed at time, rather than not even knowing where to start.

So, yeah. This is what’s been keeping me busy this summer – instead of creating other things. My hope is that once the garden gets back to a state of calm, oasis-like-ness, it will help to inspire me to do those other things. Or at the very least, provide a nice place to sit and ponder my next creation. 😉