Things I Learned from the Garden

Things I Learned from the Garden


1) One really should take care of the beds EVERY year, not just when they get out of hand.

This, I guess, is a given. I love my front yard flowerbed. But here’s the thing – I hate the WORK of the front yard flowerbed. I grow perennials for a reason – all you have to do is plant them, and Mother Nature does the rest. But it’s been 2 years since I’ve done anything with this bed, and DANG, did it show!



That’s two bleeding heart plants and a newly risen hosta. And whatever else junk’s in the bed between them.



That’s the middle of the bed. There’s a plant there that I can’t identify. The daffodils against the brick wall, and the hosta I got from a friend at Shearing Day that I hadn’t planted yet. Some rodent ate the other 2 all-green ones I had growing, and Anna was generous enough to bring me some from her garden to replace mine. LOVE the variegated, but should have moved the all-green to the center. Oh, well.



And that’s the end of the bed. Yep. That’s a sumac tree in the back. We’ve tried to pull it out for 2 years now, so guess what? It’s getting clipped to the ground, since that’s the best I can do right now. You can see the second of Anna’s hostas there, still in the baggie she gave them to me in. And miscellaneous weeds and such.

2) 120 pounds of topsoil does not go as far as one would think/hope/like

So the idea was to clear out the weeds, the tree, the old mulch, the dead and decayed hosta and daffodil leaves and the old stems of bleeding heart gone-by. To turn over what little soil still remained in the bed and to add the 120 pounds of lovely, dark topsoil I’d bought earlier. I was SURE I’d fill up the bed and have a beautiful new home for Anna’s hostas and the lovely lily of the valley my friend Julie from Ravelry sent me. This is going to be awesome, right? It’s going to be a gorgeous shade garden.



This is how far the first bag of topsoil got.



And the second.



The third went to the end.

It took several hours to get everything where I wanted it and looking the way I’d hoped. But it was a good several hours. All I need now is mulch, which Bill is bringing this weekend. I can’t wait.

3) Acrylic nails are NOT invincible. I cracked one when I “found” the metal stake that supports our Christmas decoration. Yeah. Felt awesome.

4) It takes several washes before the dirt comes out from under your nails and the grooves in your knees. The shower took half an hour and 3 rounds with the soap.

It doesn’t look like much from a distance, but once it all grows up, it’s gonna be awesome. So lesson 5?

5) Hard work and patience pay off in the long run.