Friday, August 8, 2014

Summer Chores

I really do not like weeding.  It's a necessary evil and when you've been traveling and before that ignoring flower beds....well, let's just say they get their revenge.

While I was at my sister's last week we made a trip down in the country to the Dutchman's Store...a Mennonite market that has some of the best stuff.  On the way we stopped at a produce/flower store, another Mennonite venture, where I bought some herbs to bring home.  I have a small herb garden that is mostly in the shade and doesn't do really well, except for the thyme and rosemary and oregano, and I wanted to make a new one that gets a bit more sun.  Well when I went out to plant these new ones I realized that the weeds had taken advantage of my neglect to practically take over not only the herbs but also the flower beds around my deck.


Just look at that!  Thyme is at the bottom of the photo, rosemary in the middle and in the upper right, so covered by weeds that you can't see it is lemon balm.  I don't know what that awful vine is in the rosemary but it will take over everything if I let it!


Well the herb garden is better - that's oregano in the bottom left - but the Carolina Jasmine in the upper right corner, out of the herb garden - was about to be choked to death by a different insidious vine, this one with thorns!  And then I noticed a wild grape vine had wound it's way down at least 20 feet of the fence so out it came too.  And you know when you see one thing it leads to another so the flower beds around the deck...well that took two days to finish!  Before I finished I had several piles of weeds and trimmings that looked like this.


But it was all worth it....the new herb bed was done, the flower beds looked a lot better and I'm sure the shrubs and herbs planted there are all breathing a bit better.

I've got some sage, golden oregano, spicy oregano, thyme, lemon verbena, a lavender different from the French and English I already have (don't know the name of it) and one lone tomato plant in this bed.  The tomato is a leftover from the ones we had there earlier in the summer.

And the thyme and rosemary and oregano in the bigger bed are looking good!



And to make my week even better my Grandmother's Rain Lily has bloomed!  I'm so thrilled because I thought I'd lost it but it was just resting I guess.  This lily was in a pot on my grandmother's back porch for many years in California.  When she died about 40 years ago my cousin took it home with her and several years ago shared it with me.  Now my sister has one too and hers blooms all the time on her deck.  I think it likes her better than me.  :)

The herb beds and flower beds all need some fresh dirt added and some mulch on top of that so we're headed to the dirt store this morning.  Well, it's not really a dirt store...Lowe's is way more than that and gets way too much of my money!


Wouldn't this make a beautiful quilt?  If only we could capture the colors like God made them.....

19 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, I can't believe how well your rosemary is doing! It barely grows at all in my garden, gets only slightly bigger than the plant I put in in the spring. Amazing! My herbs are choked with weeds, too, I'd be ashamed to post a photo! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. And here I sit ... the original weed-a-holic ... with so few weeds to pull that I have to stealth weed other people's property on my way to the train station. Your new beds look grand!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My weeds are bigger than your weeds. LOL Your herb garden looks lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Weeds, weeds, weeds!!! We have to pull them year round here and it is a pain when they start to get a hold while we are away!!!! I love the pretty lily. Great quilt colors.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nasty old weeds! Your flower is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am starting planting beds from scratch, so even your weeds look good to me. During my 6-month long move, Patty had custody of Grandma's Rain Lillie's. We thought we had lost them, but they are coming up again. I miss seeing them bloom this year, so keep posting pics of blooms as they appear. Love you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have been weeding too!!! Great Quilted minds must think alike!!....I had a thought while weeding yesterday....Adam must have looked at Eve a few times after leaving the Garden and said, "Seriously, Eve"? heehee I wonder what her response was.....

    ReplyDelete
  8. Weeds will always be with us, I'm afraid! Your herb garden looks so nice. I need to plant one but the spot I want is 'taken' with my sweetheart's stuff. Maybe next Spring I can make that happen. You've inspired me!
    ~Adrienne~

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm exhausted just reading about your gardens. Beautiful job you've donw all the way around.And yes, that would be a wonderful quilt.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I manage to keep my front beds and veggie garden weeded but elsewhere they run rampant. Your herb garden looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  11. My weeds are bigger than your weeds! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  12. All of your garden work makes me almost as tired as you must be! I bet your herbs smell wonderful. So happy that your Grandmother's Rain Lily is in bloom and that you shared it. Isn't it wonderful to have everything weeded?! ~Jeanne

    ReplyDelete
  13. You have done a great job and now you will be rewarded with delicious flavors to enjoy. I am battling weeds and hesitate getting down and dirty but after I get it done it is so much better. Creative Weeded Bliss...

    ReplyDelete
  14. I envy you your herb garden. I tried growing herbs once in a pot. I failed miserably. This summer has been a cool one, and weeding hasn't been hard in my yard, but all of a sudden, the heat and humidity came in with a vengeance and working in the yard is miserable.

    ReplyDelete
  15. your so right about God's colors !

    ReplyDelete
  16. I don't like the chore either, but I keep telling myself 'it's going to look so much better when your done'. It surely does!

    Huggs, Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a great little herb garden! You will have a lot of cooking fun with those!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I've never seen a rain lily. It is gorgeous and so unusual.

    ReplyDelete