I have been incredibly lax about adding to this blog. I think about it all the time. I have ideas. But time just slides away. Or creeps away. At least I feel like I am always creeping. Mostly on my backside with a weeder in my hand trying to tame the incessant green monsters that seem to pop up overnight.
My last post was 7 weeks ago! It was titled Sunny Bed and chronicled us (well mostly Tygh!) removing the grass and adding fresh soil to the area near our shed. We were in the process of creating a perennial bed there. Here is a picture of the space with grass removed and new soil. The small, barely visible plant at the base of the shed is a clematis. The next picture is how it looks seven weeks later.
To this space, we’ve been slowly adding plants. A few each week. There are Black-Eyed Susan’s, Echinacea, a bit of my mother’s Cranesbill geranium I divided, her bearded iris that was probably planted in full sun when she cared for it but was languishing in the shade of a Japanese Maple. We loved Hot Lips Salvia at our Beaverton home. Pretty, no-fuss plant that our hummer’s love. Plus Cosmos. Because they are whimsical and easy to grow from seed. We’ve got pea pods planted and have been munching on them for a week or so! Nasturtiums to scramble up a makeshift trellis. It’s become a fun hour on the weekend to hit the nursery to see what’s new. I’ve added some old favorites I remember from other homes we’ve owned and things that have a special place in my heart, which includes a pincushion flower. My grandmother always had one and so shall I!
I think we are going to call this the Stepping Stone garden. There are several stepping stones of my mother’s that we’ve moved down here. As well as new ones that were gifts for Mother’s Day from my two little grandkids. Tygh has created a little fence around the area to define the space a bit and help to keep our pups out of the area.
We plan to add mulch soon, paint the pickets a lovely blue, set the stepping stones into the ground and keep adding plants to fill in this area. This is a fun on-going labor of love.