Gardening, Round 4

     My love of cooking stems from watching my mother prepare delicious homemade meals each night for our family and for those times when she'd entertain.  When we had guests over, she made dessert ~ otherwise, we rarely were allowed sweets.  I used to pray for company because my mom made the best lemon meringue pie and butterscotch pie; those two were my favorites.

     She was a great cook, but my mother didn't want us in the kitchen & didn't teach me how to cook.  Unfortunately for my first husband, it would take a little time for me to master that on my own.  But I did.  And here we are.  Talking about FOOD when this article is really about gardening.  Ha ha....

    One of my other loves is flowers.  If I'm lucky enough to move somewhere that they've landscaped the yard at all, you can safely assume that I'll want to "enhance" it.   As with cooking, I'm a self-taught gardener and I have created three perennial flower gardens to date.  One thing I will tell you is to be patient because by the 3rd year they REALLY start to fill out and look great. Someone else has ended up enjoying "my" flower beds because I've moved FIVE times in the last 6 years.

    Maybe I was just perfecting my skills.  I can only hope that THIS is my last landscaping project. Ever.
I'm sure most of you know that we just moved into this house a little over a month ago.  The previous homeowners carved out some nice areas for landscaping, but they apparently *love* river rock.  Me, not so much.  Actually, not at all.  I feel it further dates the outside of this older home.  It MUST be enhanced!!

    First, we have to get rid of all that river rock and let me just say this.....there's enough for three yards to be landscaped.  Seriously.  Thankfully we've found a couple of folks who love this stuff enough to pay ME to shovel it for themselves.  Kinda a no-brainer.   Here's where we're at now.

    



It's all gone in the front!





Around the side/part of the back yard



   Progress is going much faster that I'd ever anticipated!  We have managed to plant a few perennials this summer but I'm really looking forward to next Spring/Summer when the stores will be loaded with a broader selection.

   In the meantime, I have only to look outside my office window, or step out my back door to see this:



Chuck & Beverley's cute back porch w/pergola



~She's adorned their back fence so creatively~







With neighbors like ours, fence not needed!

  



Chuck & Beverley's landscaping is only two years old.  As our friendship blossoms, so will the flower blooms on both sides of that invisible fence.