A Great Day For Planting, Okay, Supervising

Before weeding and planting

I am pretty blessed to have such an amazing family. My husband who tells me I can't do something and then when he realizes I AM going to do it anyway, jumps in and always lends his expertise and muscles (like when the toilet backed up the other night).

My grandchildren who are like other kids, can be lippy when the mood hits, but knowing my physical limitations help when and where they can and thus, this area next to our front deck was hand weeded by them.

You see the great thing about living in Washington where it rains frequently and enough to keep the ground moist, is that when it comes to weeds, they not only are in abundance, they are usually pretty easy to 'POP' out of the ground.

Each day after homework the kids each grab a grocery bag, head outside and in about 3 minutes each have a full bag and they do this until the weeds are clear.

Well, I love hedges near windows for security purposes and they grow quickly, and I had an idea in my head for an area that will have shrubs, a fountain/birdbath, small rose tree, lilac tree or Potato Tree, various flowers and grasses and a small wall around them.

Notice that meant removing the previous renters rock border and getting it ready for a block wall...still waiting, but at least we have the blocks.

Yesterday, I heard thud, thud, thud and opened the door and there was hubby with post hole digger carefully measuring out my shrub holes, 'before you kill them, we need them in the ground.'

Today after church, the oldest granddaughter helped plant these by following my directions:

All planted!

She even carefully managed to add the final bit of dirt in a nice even pattern across all the shrubs without a line, ruler or any other device. Funny, she says I have OCD, she doesn't realize she does as well! 

A rock barrier behind shrubs

  When it was all complete, her sister went to work and collected the rocks we needed to place a nice rock barrier behind them, but will also be good drainage when the rain gutter overflows and gives it a nice touch.

The brown pot has baby carrots planted, but something took the tops off the last batch and not sure if it was our cat, a deer or a rabbit, so I planted more.  This time however, I will keep it covered when they start to bud!

It is not done by a long shot, but it looks nicer than all those weeds that were there.  When it is complete, we will then do a mirror image on the other side of our deck.