Look at that picture! I'm so excited about what we did with the yard this year. And it started years ago with some dreams, goals and aspirations that I took the time to write down in a journal.
I'm a gardener. I love the creative aspect of gardening; trying new plants and combinations of plants and waiting to see what they look like by the end of the gardening season. Someone at the greenhouse asked me if I plan everything out before I buy plants. I just laughed. My flower and vegetable beds are always highly experimental and sometimes I'm surprised and end up with a really pleasing arrangement of textures, bloom times and colors. If I got it perfect every time, the creative part that I enjoy so much, would be gone and it would be just another task. And there's always something new I just have to try and let me just say, greenhouses and nurseries love me in the spring!
So with that said, my landscape is always in flux. Each summer, I find myself moving plants that didn't do well, dividing plants that did too well, moving plants around for better bloom or color. This year, I thinned out a trailer full of phlox that had taken over a bed. I also thinned out my iris beds and some happy gardeners came by and took my free pile of plants for their own gardens. That too makes me smile, because after living in Milford for almost 20 years, I can walk around town and see plants that I shared with others, beds that I started and tended at our previous homes, trees bearing fruit that I chose, planted and cared for that now new owners are enjoying. It makes me happy.
After we got done building the new fireplace room and garage, I had 3 large beds that were completely empty, except for the grass that washed in when we seeded our yard last fall! Typically it would take me 2-3 years to fill in these beds. But I wanted a some bushes, grasses and hardy perennials and I wanted them all in the ground and mulched before my son's graduation party. So, I did one of the things I had on my dream list; I went to a locally owned nursery and sat down with someone who does landscapes and with the help of my diagrams of the beds I wanted to fill, she helped me choose what to plant and where to plant them. I still wanted to do the hands on..I love that part. But it was so much fun and still makes me smile even now. You can see part of the plan above. The three beds we planted will require very little water or care once the plants are established, which was what I needed. I already have plenty of perennial beds that are pretty high maintenance every spring and fall.
So another dream crossed off my list. I know it doesn't look like much. But to be able to sit down, plan out 700 sq. feet of landscape and then be able to just buy all the plants right there and come home and put them in the ground according to a design; that was fun.
Do you have dreams and goals? Have you written them down? Take some time today, to look in that journal if you have one and refresh your dreams and goals. It will only take you a few minutes. It's too easy to get bogged down in the day to day and push those dreams aside. And remember, if you have never written down your goals, dreams and wishes..they are just fantasies, rattling around in your brain like marbles in a quart jar.
Anne Dovel
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Anne Dovel
WAHM, married 27
years, homeschooler, quilter, gardener, foodie and coach.
From a $75 grocery budget to 10 vacations in a year; from fat and unhappy to
fit and healthy, living a dream life with her family in a small rural
Nebraska town and helping others achieve their goals, hopes and dreams one day
at a time.
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