The Front Garden

I hate gardening. It’s just a fact. I’ve tried to analyze why, and I think it’s really a two-fold issue. Number one, I never seem to be strong enough to rip out weeds. Number two, it’s never done. When you finish a bathroom, you can stand back and say, “Done.” When you finish a garden, you stand back and say, “Done. Until next week. Then I have to maintain.”

That’s the part I think I don’t like.

Here’s the “Before.”

Also, almost every house we’ve moved into has been neglected, so the yards are always a jungled mess. Don’t get me wrong – I love walking through gardens, I love looking at them. I just really want someone else to be in charge of them.

Meet Veronica.

Veronica is a Taurus who loves gardening and taking control of any situation. (You’ve met her in some previous posts – she and Edgar have worked enough on this house that their names should really be on the mortgage). Veronica’s mother also loves gardening, and knowing full well how I hate to garden, this showed up in my email, along with specific instructions on what I needed to buy and do :

Veronica started the plants from little seedlings, and when they all grew up and got bigger and needed to flee the nest, we had to put them in the ground. I also supplemented some things from my school’s FFA greenhouse, and Doug bought me a couple of rosebushes.

I love the FFA Greenhouse. It’s lovely and warm and full of pretty things.

This all seemed like a good start.

This might seem like a bad idea to do this before we do the porch, but the seedlings needed to get in the ground. It might be the most terrible idea ever. But we did it anyway.

First up? Ripping out the weeds, and trying to figure out if there was anything worth saving.

There were a few things worth saving, but not a lot.

We made some fun discoveries on the way, like parts of the old slate roof that someone decided to use as edger. Reader tip : If you find parts of the roof on the ground, go ahead and use it for edging. But, for the love of all things holy, REPAIR THE ROOF. Thanks.

Also, BABY SQUIRRELS!!!!! They are the cutest that ever existed. They hung out with us most of the day.

We had other quality supervisors, as well. Marina and Reese were actually GREAT hanging out on the porch.

Doug bought me rose bushes at Jackson Street, and I was sad to leave them, so he bought me a couple for here. Also, there was a rose bush that was already here, intertwined with weeds and wanting to grow into the concrete front walk. We successfully rescued and moved it!

There are still some things to do – clean up the edging, paint the fence, remove the arbor. But at the end of this day, the four of us were tired, sweaty, and dirty, but the front garden looks infinitely better (and will do even better as the plants grow up more!).

Edgar and Doug –

Veronica and Amy –

I mean, the PORCH doesn’t look better. In fact, it looks even more horrific. But that should (hopefully) be changing in the next month! Porch posts are due to arrive in a couple of weeks! EEK!

Conclusion? Gardening is more fun when you have a crew together and someone gives you orders. Thank You, Veronica! More than words can say, thank you!