Spring Planting

We have grand plans for a garden and landscaping. One of the reasons why we bought our house was because of the size of the property. In 5-10 years, it should be wonderful, but right now it is a lot of wish lists and work. Darren is the yard worker in our family. If I am needed then I will go out to help, but it is just not something that I enjoy. (I have read articles about people who had unexplained aversions to certain foods & activities that turned out to be medically valid, and I think that I have the same thing. I know that I have awful allergies and my mind is just trying to protect my body by making me prefer to stay inside. At least this is what I tell myself.)

Degen LOVES mowing the lawn with Darren. In this pic, he is scarfing down a waffle while they mow the lawn.

So, my wonderful hubby mows the lawns and picks up sticks and plants trees and gardens and does all that outside stuff all year long. He has a healthy green thumb and an eye for detail, so he's perfect for the tasks at hand. We had hoped to build large containers for an above ground garden this year, but realized that along with our other projects and general busyness we were going to be way stressed out. So, the new plan is to build the containers (and also frame out the swingset with the same composite timbers and add a base of woodchips), but wait until next year to actually plant the garden. Being the planners (& dreamers) that we are, we have created a beautiful design of what we would eventually like our garden space to be: several raised bed containers of varying heights & design filled with all sorts of delicious fruits & vegetables surrounding a cozy, covered seating area. Needless to say that we are several years away from achieving that vision.

Though it is a lot of work, Darren really loves gardening and we both love reaping the benefits of growing our own food. So much so that we can't imagine a season without a single homegrown tomato. Since we aren't planting a garden this year, we compromised by getting just a few tomato & pepper plants that we put in the flower beds in the front of the house. We also had some perennial herbs that we took from our rental growing in containers in the backyard. Darren bought replacements for any that we lost and planted them in the planter off the front porch. This was done primarily at my request. I know that most people plant flowers or more decorative plants in their porch planters, but I am nothing if not practical and having herbs growing right outside the kitchen just seemed perfect to me. It is very convenient to be able to walk right out my front door and snip herbs for supper. I also think that it looks very nice even though it's not flowers!