gardens update

When I retired, one of my goals was to spend hours and hours in my gardens.  They were feeling neglected, I could tell.

When I got the call that my mom had fallen in her bathroom, I had no idea what that would mean.  But after she was checked out, stitched up a bit, and released from the ER, she was in no shape, physically or emotionally to go back home alone.  So she came to our house.

We told her she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted or she could go home whenever she wanted.  After a while, she gradually decided she wanted to stay.  So we emptied the office and set up a sitting room for her along with her bathroom and bedroom.  It wasn't the whole house she was used to being in, but she seemed okay with it.

For the first few weeks she was here, she and I sat five feet from each other in chairs in the family room and watched movies, Jeopardy!, and Law & Order.  Every day.  She was used to sitting by herself in her empty house and I had not yet established a retirement schedule.  It didn't take long to realize we needed to have some space occasionally if this new arrangement was going to work well.

So I went ahead with my retirement plans for the gardens.  I weeded for days.  Pulled every big and little weed I could find.  Then I learned how to repair drip irrigation.  Then I bought plants, hundreds of new perennials, and then I planted them.  Last I bought three pallets of bags of mulch, which if your counting is 180 bags, and I spread the mulch.

These plants (and several others I bought on numerous visits to nurseries):

now look like this:

 I pulled out most of the overgrown plants in the courtyard and planted these:

The roses are still blooming even through the heat

These beauties have been giving it their all, all summer long.  In the morning, they are spectacular. 

One side of this bed looks like this and the other looks like that below:

The trumpet vine is a big hit with buzzing insects and humming birds

As always, the black-eyed suzies are stunning and this year the phlox is brilliant

The rose of sharon never disappoints

 And these new lilies are a bright spot.

The plants have settled in nicely.  So have the people living together in the house.