Beginning Again!

Aug 25, 2020All, Garden

My daughter and I debated whether to continue this blog; she has been very busy with her career, and I have been—well, just busy since my hubby retired. But our garden has changed so much since my last post, and Jen loves our garden, too—after all, she grew up here, so we made the decision to update and begin again. The photo on our home page is one I took a few days ago. The sky was amazing; it looked like it was on fire! And when I sent the photo to Jen, she thought it would be perfect for the home page. Because fairies come out in the evening, and I have three faerie gardens just for them!

I wanted to start, though, with an update to the path beside our home. My original photo (see the “Welcome to My Garden” blog from August 28, 2016) showed the path with bird houses, a backdrop of leyland cypress trees and day lilies next to the path. Unfortunately, the trees became diseased and had to be taken down. The old (but beautiful) weeping cherry tree on the left side of the photo died a few years ago. We liked the black mulch but found it tracked onto the porch, and wasn’t very good at stopping rain erosion. So my hubby put metal strips beside the path and I added the bricks (left over from another project) to contain the mulch. Then I rearranged the pavers and added small flat stones in a decorative pattern, with paver sand underneath all, to hold them in place. We added good quality soil, packed in the mulch, and then I planted succulent plants. The goal is for the succulents to fill in and eliminate the need for mulch. It has worked pretty well, and looks great.

The first photo, obviously, isn’t of the path. But I wanted you to see what the area looked like before we put it in. Our daughter and grandkids decorate the center—no plants needed!! We had already put in the retaining wall, and the leylands. The second photo shows the path as it is now. The flowering plants are ice plants; very pretty and bloomed until the middle of July. The third photo shows how spectacular the path looked in April when the ajuga was in bloom! Yes, it is a ground cover and yes, it does try to creep into the path. But it isn’t hard to remove and plant elsewhere. I would really like it to fill in under the shrubs and bushes, to help cut down on (expensive) mulching.

The photo above is the path from the other direction. The lights that you see are not solar; they are LED color changing lights. And they are magical at night! We still have bird houses along the path; these are just two of them. In another blog I will show you more of what we have done in this area, and how pretty it all is looking. Also can’t wait to show you the path in the back of our home!

Final thought: It is so easy to get caught up in all that is happening in our world right now that, before we know it, we are stressed and maybe even fearful. But just going out into the garden, breathing deeply and looking at the beauty of God’s world begins to put it all back into perspective again.