my almost green thumb.

jenny jenny quite contrary how does your garden grow?

quite well actually.

since moving into the house last year i have had a buzz to dive head first into the garden. as i have made some progress i still have miles and miles to go. i have made some wise choices and some mistakes and i can almost see a green hue forming on the outer edge of my thumb - very faint and more of a khaki green, more yellow but desperate to be considered green. i am not a gardener by any means but i can see a garden forming and it tickles my heart. i have made a decision (probably too late in the season) that i would like to fill the back part of the garden with as many perennials as will fit there - my irises and day lilies have grown quite nice there -and possibly scrap annuals all together as i am not a very good weeder - i jump in in the beginning of the season then find other things to occupy my time in the middle and end of summer and forget about the weeding. i would just like it to be full and planty.

also there is a vegetable garden and that is quite special. last year i was amazed and impressed by the bounty i (me!!) was able to produce and this year it doesn't seem to be working so well. the house came with these broken down raised boxes i have just sort of kept them going by propping them up and tilling in new soil when they probably should have all been replaced - but what a job that is!!! my potted vegetable/herbs are thriving though and i think i might add some more pots to the collection for next year and possibly turf the large beds all together - except i have managed a weak collection of strawberries there that someone likes to take nibbles out of.

thyme.

my almost tomatoes

the last surviving strawberries - all others nibbled by, i suspect, the skunk which sprayed gordon.

cherry tomatoes planted from a small six pack.

along the back stone patio there are what seem to be beds that the previous owners filled with rocks and the weeds have made this their home as well. this would be beautiful all dug out and planted - what a job that would be! i think that might go on my next year or possibly autumn list if i can muster up the will and desire. you can see a faint inclination of it behind in the picture of the potted cherry tomatoes - see all those rocks? that's a flower bed.

the left side of the house has a plan all it's own as that is where the winter rink goes and in summer it is thick slabs of uneven concrete that the husband has come up with a clever idea of filling the space with gravel to even it out, decoratively placing flagstone, making our fire pit the middle and wait patiently for the grand gift of a yard lounge set and some muskoka chairs (wink, wink).

the front is a work in progress creating that "curb appeal" but at least the ghetto brick planters are gone and i see a beautiful raised bed in our future. as keeping in the theme of the house i hope to keep the colour scheme in white and red up there and upon hearing that there are red day lilies i am very excited to add them in there for that pop of red. i love the look of long grasses when that's the purpose - not when you are a lazy sack who will not mow! i will keep hanging baskets year after year because they add that something special to the front porch but i am hoping to create a garden that will come back every year and minimize my trips to the nursery. i gaze across the street at the beautiful landscape created there and sometimes get discouraged but then i remember that they have lived there in 29 years, that rome was not built in a day and quite possibly their garden looked like mine years ago. being neglected for years, tackled head on last year, seeing improvement by the next and hopefully will one day match theirs in style & beauty. fingers crossed.