Thursday, April 30, 2020

Garden Brag

I know I haven't written much in the last few years but most of you know we finally bought our first home in the summer of 2017. Well when we first moved in this was what the front garden looked like.

Now this may look very green and full but this was a disaster. It turns out all that green was morning glories and wild grapes and one very over grown bush. So the first thing I did was just yank it all out, cut it back, and see what would grow the next year. 

So the next spring surprisingly a rosebush appeared and so did peonies and daffodils. So I added to that gladiolas, dahlias, more peonies, tulips, etc. So by spring of 2019 it looked more like this.

However I still hated the gross cement edging and even though I had added fencing and some ornaments and the flowers were coming in nicely, it still did not have the look I wanted and there was also the problem that by removing the drain spout that was right in the middle of my garden, the rain that would pour down would drown the middle of my garden. It just didn't look right. 
which brings me to this spring.
I planted last Fall and this Spring about 20 more types of flowers both perennials and annuals, some that will bloom in April, some in May or June, some July and August. I also dug out the cinder blocks and added nice cedar edging. Most of all though I separated the 2 halves of the garden into 2 little round gardens with a decorative water feature in between. Someday I would like to turn this into an actual pond but for now it is just a bird bath fountain. 
So here is the garden as it is right now. I have more edging coming in the mail to finish the one side and it's just now getting warm so not much is growing right now so I will definitely do an update post in a few weeks but here it is so far. 




And here it is at night lit up with all the solar lights :)


So there is my front garden story.... it has been a work in progress for 3 years and will continue to evolve I am sure.

Recycling a Garden

So one of my many projects in the last month was rebuilding our garden beds. I had 2 old beds that were falling a part and a bunch of wood from our old bed frame. So using just that I managed to build a really nice garden box. It is 8 ft long and 10 ft wide and 10 inches deep. The fencing is also recycled and so is the trellis arch. I bought those and have reused them for 3 years now (trellis) and 7 years (fencing). Then I filled it with compost and soil and voila. So here is the finished product. It was not easy, there are a lot of staples, nails, etc holding it together, but here it is. I am excited to finally have a smaller and more put together garden.

Life In The Time Of Corona

Over the last few years I have started blogging again,and never really kept it up. I think because honestly life got busy but also mainly it was because I no longer had my own computer. Well after 7 years without one I finally got a new one. I am hoping this will be enough to keep me blogging. 
So here we all are. I began this blog in 2009. I had a 2 month old baby boy and a crappy apartment and I was debating going back to school. That was almost 11 years ago now. Now that 2 month old is a 5th grader. We also have an almost 6 yr old daughter. We have a dog again, a different one. We bought a house, I got my degree, I am a teacher with my own classroom. Life is good...
Or was....
In January of this year, right after New Years we began to hear the same story over and over on the news. Covid-19, Coronavirus, was heading to the US. The President said it wasn't bad, everyone said it was like a mild flu, we were near a cure, it was a hoax etc etc. 
By February though it started getting a little more scary. It had hit the US. 
March 1st came and it was tax refund time. Hubby and I were much more involved with getting our new refrigerator than a silly virus. By March 5th my classroom started to drop, numbers dropped all over the center. On March 7th Rob left work on Spring Break (he works for a local University) only to a few days later be told he would not be returning until they were not sure when. March 13th The kids had their last day of school and our numbers dropped even more as frightened parents started to stay home. March 15th the order came down that all the schools in the State were now closed. By March 18th grocery stores were bare. All cleaning or disinfectant supplies gone, toilet paper a dream of yesterday. Meat was impossible to find, bread a memory. We did find yeast though and started learning to bake bread. On Friday March 20th I was furloughed. On March 21st I began making masks for people. As of today I have made and given away 118 masks. On March 22nd the Stay At Home Order came through. Do not leave you homes unless it is an emergency. March 23rd we began HomeSchool.
So here we are it's April 30th. For my husband this is Day 54 of Quarantine. For my kids it's Day 48. For me it's Day 41. So far the US has had 1.06 Million cases with over 61,500 deaths. My State has had over 300,000 cases and over 18,000 deaths and my County has had 170 cases and 2 deaths.
We have gardened, sewed, painted, remodeled, baked, cooked, grilled, taught, cried, laughed, vegetated, binge watched, stared at walls, and most of all missed.....
Missed our parents and them spending time with their grandkids, missed my students, missed my classroom, missed routine, missed spending holidays with family (St. Patrick's Day, and Easter passed while in quarantine and we are coming up on Mother's Day.) miss friends, night's out, restaurants, movie theaters, drinks with the girls, backyard BBQ's with friends, taking my kids to the park, shopping for nothing....
Just life... I miss life!
But my family is healthy, and we have enough to pay our bills and fill our cupboards.... so we will keep on keeping on... I will continue to make masks for those who need them, and home school my kids, and stay home until we are told we can restart life again.

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