Gardening

Every year I like to do a little gardening. When we lived in Maryland, I had several beds that were blank canvases each spring for the variety of annuals and a few perennials that I'd pick up at Walmart, Home Depot, or even bring back from FR's Stokes Market. Even before Dave and I married, I began making my first flower beds at that house on Littlewood Court.

A few weeks after Caleb was born I took him outside to be a part of my hobby. For his newborn shots, our photographer even captured a few pics of our sweet newborn in the large arrangement I'd made in one of our pots. 

I had never had poison ivy before, but I sure did get a bad case of it from planting that year.

After moving to Virginia, my habit of running to the store at the first signs of spring and planting as soon as possible changed a little. That summer of 2011, I was running behind and actually didn't begin my planting until June. I was of course busier than the previous ones since I had a toddler to tend to which was probably a good part of the reason why. I did eventually hit the flower section at a couple stores likes Stokes Market though and was finally ready to plant. Dave took care of the weeding with a little help from his sidekick, and I got to try out being creative on the fresh layout of this unfamiliar landscape where the shrubs were much more symmetrically placed than my previous ones had been. 

Since we moved here, it's become an annual tradition to hang ferns on our porch every year. They've looked much healthier in years past, but as each summer passes and our family grows I am worse and worse about watering them. It is a good thing I have Dave or we'd have nothing but brown leaves dangling overhead.

In May of 2012 I got back on the ball with getting my plants in the ground in the spring like you're supposed to. Caleb was even more helpful that year than in the past, and I began teaching him a little about how to plant flowers like packing the soil in around the plant. Quality time with him in the yard prepping the beds had become a family tradition. 

I miss these baby toes.

June rolled around quickly in 2013 as I juggled a preschooler as well as a toddler, so I was back to starting late again. I made up a handful of pots and purchased some ferns to hang, but we didn't get anything in the ground that year for the first time. I'd hoped to get a garden going, but Dave ended up catching a bad case of poison ivy or something when he tried to clear out the overgrown one left behind by the previous owners of our house so we abandoned that idea. (Not that we had the extra time to tend it anyway.)

Caleb liked hanging with me and helping.

He played with Mommy's hair as we went - a favorite past time that he still does pretty much daily.

Hadley was too busy to slow down long.

She wanted to play in the dirt more than she wanted to plant anything.

She loves dirt like Aunt Courtney did when she was little.

Helping clean up

This summer when July rolled around, I thought about skipping the whole process all together. Who plants flowers after the Fourth of July? Well, me this year. 

I could have just let these perennials I planted suffice, but having some fresh pots on the porch and those ferns I love add so much to the atmosphere. Even if I only get to enjoy them for a couple months, I decided to try to add a few green things to the scene. 

I think I planted these lilies the first summer we were here. They turned out so pretty.

Though Caleb had shown a lot of interest in planting when we talked about it beforehand, Hadley was much more of a helper this time around while he distracted by the toys he found in the garage instead.

First she helped me empty the dirt from the old pots and throw it down over the bank.

Then, she assisted with adding more dirt. 

Since I didn't have time to shop or be too fancy with arrangements, I bought a few premade ones at Lowes and just transferred them to my pots. The first one fell apart as I put it in, but Dave used a knife to cut the pot off the other, helping it come out in one piece. Good thinking!

There he goes helping fill in the soil. Thanks, Caleb (who was still in his pjs).

The "garden" behind our house has continued to look like this for the past four summers that we've lived here. While I long for the taste of homegrown tomatoes and fresh squash, green beans, or watermelons, there just isn't time for us to clear it much less tend it.

I had a strawberry plant someone gave me that I ended up having to give to my grandparents due to our lack of time to set up some raised beds for it, and we also sent them with a squash plant Caleb had planted in Sunday school and grown in our kitchen window since it otherwise would have wilted away. Oh...and the heirloom tomato plant I bought in high hopes of getting it into the ground...it's currently dried up on our front porch.

Thankfully though, God took care of my longing for a little fresh produce in my yard. I have been wanting Dave to plant blackberry bushes in the yard for years but we've never got around to it. Back in the spring when things were blooming though, my granddad looked out at the flowering weeds growing along the border of our yard and told me he thought we had a bunch of blackberry bushes. What?!? I'd been missing those for the past three years! Maybe he was mistaken...but nope! The guy who mows for us also mentioned something too me about all the berries that were ripening along the edge of our property. HOORAY!

After Dave took Hadley in from planting that evening to clean up, Caleb and I went exploring to see just what we had. Sure enough we found quite a few patches of berries ready to pick.

Just as I felt, my son was pretty happy with this discovery (though he was hoping we'd find some raspberries too like we did at NaNa's). 

He wasn't much for picking the berries but he was a good bucket holder. 

He even took a few pics of me.

The best part of the picking though is the eating. They were smaller than store berries, but I think the flavor was much better. What do you think, Reid?

Must have been a sour one?

The older two got their share as well.

Hadley got a sour one too!

Caleb sure did like them.

Maybe next year with three little helpers who will be a bit older, we'll finally get our garden. Until then we'll just enjoy our blackberries, the few flowers we have adorning our porch, and the fresh produce a few friends and family members send our way from their gardens.