Playing In The Dirt Is Good Therapy

....when the results are good :)

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I relish weekends when our children go to Poppa & Nannies house.  It means that the Friday night is reserved for "date night" and it matters not to me whether we go out or stay in, IYKWIM - it's just time for us to be together without kids.  Yesterday afternoon around four o'clock, after our children had left, we hid in the bedroom for an hour or so and then MusicMan said we should go get some food from a place where they cook and bring it to you.  I concurred.  What a whirlwind of a week it has been for everyone in our house.  I lost count on Monday afternoon all the activities and people and appointments that we had as a family on our calendar.  That was just the first day.  I just wanted to be with MusicMan, drink, relax and plan our Saturday morning in the yard.

For those of you who garden, you know you have to start your day with a trip to a H&G store and our morning was no different.  I love going to Lowe's either early in the morning or late in the afternoon because I come across some of the best deals in the garden center.  Today was no different.  I came home with the soil amendments that I knew we needed as well as 3 Leyland Cypress, 2 Daylilies (with about 4 naturalized plants in the pots, and 3 White Crepe Myrtle shrubs.  All of that for $20.  Yep, twenty dollars.  I know that each of the cypress were $19 each at regular price.  I don't know how much the Crepe Myrtles were. Everything is in decent shape but need a bit of TLC.  The Crepe Myrtles will not be worth anything until next year.  I'll prune them back a bit now and wait with anticipation for next spring and summer when they show me their stuff.

Anyhow - MusicMan is gone for an hour or so to get the kids since P&N have a funeral to attend this afternoon and we are taking the kids to the fair tonight.  Did I tell you that I got 2 Blue Ribbons for my two plants that I entered?  Tomorrow afternoon around 7 PM, we'll take the kids back to P&N's house for them to stay for 3 days.  Intercession is this coming week and my kids do not qualify for intercession so they are out the entire week.  MusicMan and I will have 72 hours to play in the dirt, play in the bedroom and play work in the office without the interruption of kids.  I am drooling at all of the many possibilities of accomplishment before us.

Here's what we started with this morning out the kitchen window:

 

I've been waiting 3 years to move these Nandinas.  The first year we were too busy with remodeling projects.  The second year I missed the transplant time and I've been planning since spring to move them in the first part of October.  Today we did it :)

Here's where we moved them to:

There were five healthy Nandinas in the bunch and we moved them to the flower bed where we just cleaned out.  You may notice that those two huge holly shrubs are gone.  They were removed on Wednesday morning by a guy that is working on the Obama campaign with us.  That area looked so wide open with out those holly trees there.  My plan is to have these Nandina fill in and benefit from the full sun that this area gets in the fall so that the hedge that forms will be a bright red and that is what you will see straight ahead of you when you pull up into our driveway.  In that bare area immediately in front of them is where I'm going to put all those bulbs (or most of them anyway).

Without the Nandina below the kitchen window - several things are clearly obvious:

   

I've got to pressure wash the brick and siding around the windows before we can put anything in that bed.  I was horrified when I stood back and looked at the brick - yuck!  I never knew it looked like that because the plants were covering it up.  I guess not having sun hit that part of the house is what makes it look like that, eh?  I haven't decided if I'm going to move save/transplant that holly that was immediately beside the back door.  I don't know where to put it yet. 

 

I think we're going to put green edging at the curve of the stone walk so that we can contain the soil in the bed.  I'm going to amend it and try to build it up a bit before I put the hostas in it.  I'm pretty sure the Hostas will love this spot since it never gets "direct" sun.  Any other suggestions for what might go well here?

I wish I could grow my Rosemary here but it won't flourish without sun in this spot.  I would love to have that Rosemary fragrance waft around me every single time I open and close that door.  That would be grand.

So - MusicMan has gone to get the kids.  We are going to the fair this evening.  I hope we can rent a pressure washer so I can take care of that duty tomorrow after church or first thing Monday morning.

Oh - here's a pic of my goody plants that I got for $20.  I have to decide exactly where to put them.  I already have a few places in mind.

 

Since I'm such a "results oriented" person - I'd say that we had a productive morning and I can't wait to finish these projects out.

Comments

[NewYorkTwinMom]

You did get a lot done. Good for you!

I love nice landscaping, but I'm not physically able to really get down in the dirt like that. We plan to have somebody come and do a front entry and walk with paver's stone in the spring, and hopefully get some landscaping done as well.

Enjoy your grown up time.