I love my mom. Ever since I was little she has been so passionate about gardening, and I never really understood how she gained this passion? Would I ever like gardening? How do you garden? How do you know what plants to put where? These questions among others have been floating around my head for awhile. I always watch my mom go to the store and talk about flowers as if they have feelings! I was so intrigued by this and have been for many years.
The reason I am reminiscing about my mom and her impeccable gardening skills is because Jon has been renting the house he grew up in from his mom for around a year now. Jon's mom moved out last September and let Jon move in. Now, let me say here that this was not an easy move for Maureen. She had lived in this house for 33 years and had established herself in this community, as well as this house. She is an amazing gardener as well and had some pretty established flower beds both in the backyard, and front yard. Well, since Jon has been living in this house, these beds have not been well maintained. Not to tattle on Jon here, but neither of us really knew what to do, so we decided to do nothing. Well nothing is exactly what should NOT have happened. Before we knew it the backyard was a jungle. I'm talking a jungle off of Jumanji. Both Maureen, and my mom had come to the house on an afternoon and said we needed to take the yard back! Now, I'm not living at Jon's house, but I'm over there on occasion, so we both decided to make it a project! BRING IT ON BACKYARD!
I. HAD. NO. IDEA. how hard it is to garden! How much work goes into each intricate detail of everything. I didn't know how much thought and energy is put into one flower bed. I definitely didn't know how rewarding it was either. All of these years of my mom taking me on her annual "garden walk" which would include a detailed explanation of all of her flowers, and why she put what where, and I had NO CLUE how or why she was doing this, but now I know. She was so proud of all the work she had done, she poured tons of energy and thoughts into these little garden beds. They were like her little babies. She wanted someone to awe and look at the flowers with! Now and only NOW do I have an appreciation for my mom's garden walks. Now do I have an understanding of how much work goes into every landscape detail that is put into a house.
Needless to say, after countless days we are still working on the yard. We are cutting down tree limbs, getting out all of the vines and shinola that thrives in an untouched yard for a year. It is both rewarding and tiring.
Two nights ago, my mom came home with a present. She bought a hanging basket with a rod! I was so incredibly excited! This will go great in the yard! Today, Jon and I went to Home Depot and bought several flowers that we thought would look good in the basket. We of course determined whether the basket would need shade flowers or sun flowers and we quickly determined sun. We got back to his house and I planted my very first hanging basket! So incredibly rewarding. I'm sure you will hear more of my therapeutic gardening. Yes, I said therapeutic...it really is, you should try too!
Below are some pictures for you to enjoy :-)
Awwww this is fabulous! There have been many influences on my love of gardening! Happy to be inspiring it in you! Love you!
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