Planting A Garden In The Rain

I love Washington state for so many reasons that most people wouldn't understand...
1- I love the rain
2-I love the fog
3-I love snow
4- I love digging in mud
5- I love Rhododendrons (Rhodies)

Living in Arizona for over 22 years, having a garden wasn't just an act of God, it was difficult, never ending work...the ground was hard as rock , filled with rocks and sand, so we had to pay to bring dirt in.

Gophers took most of the garden unless you lopped their itty bitty wittle heads off or built an above ground garden and trust me, there is nothing more upsetting than planting a beautiful garden, weeding it, watering it and standing next to it and hearing this eery crunching noise and literally watching your months of hard work being pulled under the ground!

Yet, through dedicated hard work, I had a beautiful rose garden, hubs had a vegetable garden and we had a lush yard and trees. Of course, all that came with the price of sweat and the high cost of water.

But here where I live on the coast...water is given freely by God, which causes the ground to be moist (okay socking wet)enough to dig up with a small shovel, plant all kinds of plants and the sun (when it comes out) isn't so hot is scorches everything.

A few days ago, my grands and I planted this Rhodie plant and 2 Hostas with lots of natual slug killer, cedar mulch. Today, we planted the primroses and a few pansy plants in the same area. I have a wedge shaped area i want to fill with plants this summer and this is the beginning:

I love this picture that the youngest granddaughter took from the top of our porch looking down. You can barely see the little pansies between the Hostas and Rhodie.

I guess I love Washington so much because my great grandfather did so much for this state. He was instrumental in hand planting trout in the streams and lakes of the Northern Cascade mountains and due to his love for the outdoors, Washington state has trout!

My great grandpa was A.B. 'Brown' Wiseman, he was a councilman for Skagit county, a business owner and a high school teacher. My great grandpa was also a humble and loving man and is still very talked about today.

The lakes he planted trout in, were many and included Sauk, Baldy, Monogram, Jordan, Watson, Big Sandy and Thunder lake, Cascade River shed and Whatcom county area. Now I know what I love this state so much, it is part of my families history.

After planting the above garden, I planted a smaller flower garden around my mailbox this morning after church and it includes:
- Snap Dragones
-Dusty Millers
-Alyssum
-Petunias
-Hyacinth
-Hostas

It will be interesting to see what else comes up because in this area each year, different plants have just grown up and always amazed me.

Here it is from a slightly different angle and of course, I love to add garden statues to my flower gardens and since I love turtles, I took this little guy from another area of the yard and placed him at home in this new garden. If these all grow, I will take more pictures as the garden progresses!