Picture Grab-bag

I stuck my hand into one of my boxes of pictures (all meant for a "someday" project), pulled one out at random to scan into my journal, and then tell the story. Makes this journal more about me.  

This my backyard flower border at our previous home.  It was my attempt at an "English Garden" perennial border.  It actually doesn't look too bad...decent job of varying foliage colors and textures.  This was how it looked at the height of the season. At the time, I thought it looked okay...but it really was a pain in the butt.  All the weeding, dividing, and pulling out of spent plants...TOO much work to keep up.

And now...how I miss it!  The trick to the border above is that the previous owner had cared for and amended those flower beds for years.  All I had to do was plunk in the flowers I liked, and they grew.  The yard at our new home could be a nuclear waste dump, as good as it is for planting. Being newer construction, the house is built on layer upon layer of what they call "fill dirt" which is anything anybody wanted to dump there (it actually COULD be nuclear waste...), and then it got run over and tamped down by a HUGE bulldozer until it was high and level enough to build a house on.  Needless to say, this kind of "garden" does not accept plants too readily.  We've planted trees...it took us four hours, working with a sharp-pointed maul and pick (Shovel? Did you say shovel?  You can't use no stinking shovel) to dig a hole for a small plum tree.  It didn't die, but let's just say it's not thriving.  Even the lawn is patchy and sick. 

Our new yard will be a long, drawn-out project.  And I am NOT the most patient person in the world.  In the end, though, I just love working in the garden, even if the results are less than prize-worthy.  I like being outside as long as the weather is decent.  I love feeding the birds and talking to them while I dig, prune, mow, water, and sweep.  Bugs, which I used to scream and run away from when I was little (until I was about thirty), I just push out of my way and keep digging.  For me, I guess it's more about the process than the results.