Spring is almost here...!
I love spring. I always have enjoyed the warmer weather, the spring storms, and watching the trees come back to life. But now that I'm in the midst of a journey to boost my house's curb appeal with better landscaping, spring is kind of amazing.
I am in the process of excavating a flower bed in the backyard, against the north side of our house. It's tough work, but Scott won't allow me to raise the bed since it is against the brick. I have to keep it below the brick line, so if I want to grow anything worthwhile in the bed, I have to replace much of the clay currently in the bed with good organic dirt that will actually support root systems and let things grow.
Needless to say, yesterday alone I shoveled out ten wheelbarrowfulls of sticky brown clay, then wheeled it all to the back of the yard and dumped it. Scott praised my work, but said it was "a good start". *Siiiiigh*
Humorously, I feel like I have a superiority over other folks when I'm at the garden center these days. This is funny because I still make tons of mistakes, and Jenn laughs when I have ornamental kale sticking a very odd 2 feet up in the air and blooming (you're not supposed to let it bloom) or when I call something by the wrong name.
Scott and I found ourselves at the Home Depot yesterday-- he was there for roof flashing, and I was there for dirt! Well, a special dirt: soil additives-- pine bark, organic compost, and peat moss. I glanced at another young couple like ourselves with a cart of things including a blooming Carolina jessamine, an airplane plant, and a cute little bag of Miracle Grow. That was once me... yep. Now I'm getting peat moss, baby.
It's my goal to get these flower beds dug out and filled by April 1st so I can enjoy planting some things that will look nice and get established before the searing scorch of June and July.
It did me some good to have Scott gone for five days or so. I ended up spending some much needed time investing in others: my PEOs, my best friends, my mother-in-law, my life group. I ended up sleeping just fine without him, so that must be only a thing that gets interrupted when he's out working all night long and I'm waiting for him to come home.
You know what else? It's only been three days, but we're nicer to each other. I think part of this is the continual leveling out of my hormones (in addition to the drop in my beta HCG, I had my first period right before Scott left-- oh the mood swings.) But also I feel more at peace, which is such a gift.
I am in the process of excavating a flower bed in the backyard, against the north side of our house. It's tough work, but Scott won't allow me to raise the bed since it is against the brick. I have to keep it below the brick line, so if I want to grow anything worthwhile in the bed, I have to replace much of the clay currently in the bed with good organic dirt that will actually support root systems and let things grow.
Needless to say, yesterday alone I shoveled out ten wheelbarrowfulls of sticky brown clay, then wheeled it all to the back of the yard and dumped it. Scott praised my work, but said it was "a good start". *Siiiiigh*
Humorously, I feel like I have a superiority over other folks when I'm at the garden center these days. This is funny because I still make tons of mistakes, and Jenn laughs when I have ornamental kale sticking a very odd 2 feet up in the air and blooming (you're not supposed to let it bloom) or when I call something by the wrong name.
Scott and I found ourselves at the Home Depot yesterday-- he was there for roof flashing, and I was there for dirt! Well, a special dirt: soil additives-- pine bark, organic compost, and peat moss. I glanced at another young couple like ourselves with a cart of things including a blooming Carolina jessamine, an airplane plant, and a cute little bag of Miracle Grow. That was once me... yep. Now I'm getting peat moss, baby.
It's my goal to get these flower beds dug out and filled by April 1st so I can enjoy planting some things that will look nice and get established before the searing scorch of June and July.
It did me some good to have Scott gone for five days or so. I ended up spending some much needed time investing in others: my PEOs, my best friends, my mother-in-law, my life group. I ended up sleeping just fine without him, so that must be only a thing that gets interrupted when he's out working all night long and I'm waiting for him to come home.
You know what else? It's only been three days, but we're nicer to each other. I think part of this is the continual leveling out of my hormones (in addition to the drop in my beta HCG, I had my first period right before Scott left-- oh the mood swings.) But also I feel more at peace, which is such a gift.