Welcome to my blog

Category: my gargen pictorial | Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:17 pm

Hello and welcome to my blog. Not a very entertaining first sentence, I know, but hopefully my witty prose will start pumping soon and I will have made you glad you chose to check out my blog. This is the first blog for me and only the second forum I've ever joined.

I've always wanted to take pictures of my garden at different times throughout the growing season, but my ambition has never been as great as my desire, so it is something I've never accomplished. But, oh, the power of the online community and the forums they flock to. If I tell myself I need to do something and I do it, great; but if I don't do it and no one knows I was supposed to do it, does it matter? Similar in theory to the "if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" But if I post that I need to do something and I don't, I have to respond to my failure and be accountable to a potentially mind-boggling amount of internet users. That is a powerful motivator. (That's the motivation gets me to clean my bathroom every morning. LOL)

So, my blog is all about my flower garden. We bought our home six years ago (has it really been that long?). It had a 22' above ground swimming pool five feet off the back of the house. Having a one-year old at the time, we did not want the hassle of a pool. They are, in my opinion, dangerous, and this pool in particular was ugly. Why do they make the outside of above-ground pools blue? They should be green so as to blend in with the surrounding grass. No, they make them to stand out as much as possible. Plus, the previous owners were going through a divorce and the pool was not kept up. (Don't feel bad for my children that we got rid of the pool. My in-laws have one and live five minutes away. My kids get to swim; Grandma and Grandpa get to see the kids a lot during the summer; and I don't have to deal with cleaning a pool. It's a win-win-win situation.)

Shortly after we bought the house, we found someone to take the pool in exchange for having dirt brought in and grass seed planted. After they took the pool, the guy said he was afraid he would crush our pipes having a load of dirt driven into our backyard, so he pretty much balked on his end of the agreement. Needing to get other things done in the house, we left the giant dirt circle in the backyard for a year. When the next spring rolled around, we decided to use the area for a flower garden instead of reseeding. A friend of my husbands was getting rid of some flagstone, so we used it to create a patio in the center. A few years later, we built an L-shaped bench at the edge of the patio. We also increased the garden from the original circle to aid in mowing and make it look less like the pit of a removed swimming pool. I'll have to dig up some pictures of what it has looked like through the years to give an idea of where it's come from.

The garden is an absoltue hodge-podge of plants. Most of them are freebies from our relatives. When we originally created the garden, we put in several (eight?) rose bushes. I guess we were going for an English rose garden. Many of them did not survive the first winter. We have maybe three or four left and they are not very big. We have daffodils, which are coming up now. We have loads of irises. We have purple cone flowers, more black-eyed susans than you can shake a stick at, and several types of coreopsis. We have many varieties of lillies, including my favorite, the star-gazer lilly. We've had many oak and maple trees take root and grow. We've cut down all but one, and it may go this year too. We're kind of flip-floppy on whether to keep it or let it go.

That's all for now. As soon as I figure out how to include images, I'll post my first photos. Thanks for reading my blog!

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Comments

glendann wrote on Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:30 pm:

First Amy welcome to the Stew from Central Texas.I bet your yard is wonderful.
It sounds fantastic I hope you can get some pictures soon.We are a fun zany bunch and I've learned so much from here.It is addictive so watch out.Hope you enjoy everything and have fun.

katsback wrote on Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:36 pm:

friends and family help alot in getting a garden going,my momgave me iris's(light purple) that smell like grape kool-aid,i love them!oh welcome too!!hugs
kat

Gardenstew wrote on Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:45 pm:

I totally agree that if you want to commit to something saying it in public is a great motivator. And now you've said it ;) Congrats on your new blog Amy, we shall be following it with much interest.

Netty wrote on Fri Mar 23, 2007 5:51 pm:

Welcome Amy. Great start to your blog...I can't wait to see some pictures!
Most of my first plants were from friends and family too. Then I started collecting seeds and have been able to get a lot of new things that way, even if it can take a few years until they are big enough for the garden. Oh yes, and for the last few seasons I've had great luck at the "end of season clearance" sales!!

Gardenstew wrote on Fri Mar 23, 2007 6:04 pm:

Forgot to add Amy, here is how to post photos to your blog

http://www.gardenstew.com/about4115.html

Let me know if you need further help ;)

eileen wrote on Fri Mar 23, 2007 8:43 pm:

Your patio area is sooo much better than a big, blue ugly pool Amy. I'm really enjoying reading your blogs entries and seeing your photographs. Keep them coming!!