The Beauty of a Garden

One Saturday, I went and helped my friend, Josie put up a garden wall in front of their house. It was getting difficult for her husband to mow that sloping part of their yard because of his bad knees.
Below is a picture of what we were working on ...
(all photos can be enlarged by clicking)


This is what it looks like after 2 days of hard work! ... but it was worth it, don't you think? It's hard to see, but Josie planted beautiful roses, dahlias, gladiolas, and I don't know what else. I'm pretty sure it will be a beautiful display of flowers once they start blooming.


If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you'll probably remember how my front yard looked "blah" in the winter. I've been debating on what to do to give it a little ommph! When I saw my friend's completed garden wall, I said, "that's it, that's what I will do with mine!" ;)
So, I took a week off from work, and my friends, Josie and Cecilia came and helped me spruce up the place. Pictured below is the before ...


... and after. There was a lot of hauling and digging. I could hardly move the next day; my whole body ached, very back- breaking work for sure, but the red blocks made a lot of difference! Sometime next year, I will strategically plant a few dwarf pines or yews, that will stay green in the winter. I think it will look nice with Christmas lights.


Remember also, when this same friend, Josie came and helped me start a new garden bed by our walkway? If you click the link, that's how it looked like then.

Anyhow, at first, we put two layers of blocks along the walkway, but I decided that it looked like too much, so we came up with just two layers in front as a garden wall, and one layer along the walkway as edging. I think it's more pleasing to the eye that way.


This is what the other side looks like. There are dahlias, zinnias, poppies, cosmos and marigolds growing in here, that is why I can't really dump some mulch yet.



The next day, Josie came back and helped me weed our peonies. I swear, sometimes, grasses and weeds grow as fast at the plants themselves.
This is before ...



... and after. I can almost feel my peonies thanking us! lol Now they can "breathe".
To save my aching back and rickety knees, I decided to use those landscape fabrics, covered with mulch to prevent weeds/grass from growing back.


It's amazing what you can do in a matter of two days. We were even able to weed, mulch and plant a few geraniums and snapdragons around some of my bushes/trees.


... like this one.



... and these. Next time, I will show you what I've accomplished for the rest of my week; a very busy and tiring but productive week off indeed! And hey, I lost 6 lbs from all these exertions by the way! ;)