Blog, Blog, Blog

Blogging is harder than you’d think. It requires dedicated time to sit down and put your thoughts into writing, editing and loading photos, and managing your website’s plug-ins. When I started this blog, I thought it was so great because I had all this time to write about my garden. I’d take the pictures and then the months would fly by before I’d ever get them posted. Alas, most of my posts seem to be summaries of all that’s happened in the previous seasons. So I’m going to try a little writing experiment. I’m going to try to post daily for a while. I’ll give myself 15 minutes to write about something and post one picture. I need to create a habit and make it less of a meaty undertaking. I don’t need to spend hours putting together a single post. I enjoy writing and I enjoy journaling my life and garden. I need to dedicate the time to this project, so here goes! Today’s post will be about fall. The time starts now!

I love fall. The colors, the temperature, the slow-cooked meals- it’s all so cozy. I also enjoy taking a little break from heavy duty gardening. There is less to harvest and less of a need to work so hard. Yesterday, Adam and I did spend a couple of hours cleaning up from last weekend’s weather. Our red cedars dropped a lot of debris in the driveway and our locust trees left the sidewalks coated in yellow confetti. We got all that cleaned up and I mowed the lawn now that it’s come back from summer dormancy. It all looks pretty nice out there. Of course, I still have a lengthy list of projects I’d like to get to in our yard. This is the time to think about what I’d like to accomplish next. I’m planning to smother an area that currently has grass growing. A friend who works at a coffee shop gave me some burlap coffee sacks that I’ll cut open and lay over the grass. I’m then planning to bring in several yards of compost and top soil. That area will then be planted with more perennials, herbs, and flowers. Being on a corner lot, we have two large parking strips that line the sidewalks. One has three large honey locust trees which provide a lot of shade and keep the grass looking pretty nice. The other side does not have any trees and the grass is in terrible shape. On the corner, we have a mass of cotoneaster which looks terrible. I’d like to take the cotoneaster out and put a bench there along with some low growing, drought tolerant plants. We have a nice water view from that spot and it might make for a nice place for walkers to rest after they tackle the monster hill we live on. Along the parking strip, I’m going to plant 3 or 4 dwarf magnolia trees that have a yellow flower. I’m having a little trouble locating the trees I’d like because they are pretty rare specimens. It’s worth the effort to research trees. I need trees that will reach no taller than 20 feet at maturity. Right now I’m considering Magnolia ‘Butterflies’ and Magnolia ‘Sunburst’. They are beautiful and I love the idea of having trees that people rarely see. In our backyard, I’m going to continue to develop a native plant garden that requires less maintenance. It’s a fine balance of being ambitious and realistic with gardening. I can only do so much!

Well, my 15 minutes is about up. Here are a few photos of our garden in all its October glory. I love seeing the seed heads and toppled over artichokes. I’m also including a photo of the cotoneaster monster as well as the parking strip that I’d like to renovate. Just imagine it with pretty flowering trees.

Enjoy the day!

Jenny

(Note to self- this took much longer than 15 minutes because I got frustrated with the photos. Tomorrow- one picture.)

October 19th, 2016 | girl has thyme | No Comments |