Most people think yardwork is a chore.  I, however, find working in the yard relaxing, productive, calming, an outlet for creativity and a way to burn some energy.   Some people go to the gym, I work in the yard.

 

Now, let’s be truthful – heavy yardwork and digging is beyond me.  Mowing the lawn can be done but edging is a different matter.  These fall into Eric’s realm.  Besides, Eric needs some outside tasks.  🙂

My initial focus was on the front and side yard where I could see results pretty quickly.  We use bricks for surrounding some of the beds and throughout the year, they settle, weeds start to grow over & around the bricks, losing the sharpness of the bed.

A few hours here and there and they’re good until next year (or so).

We had this native bee house…………..

……….but it had seen better days.  Eric said he could make a better one……………since we now have plenty of time at home   😦    He had to build the entire structure since the wood had rotted in the one seen above.

A friend of ours gave me two mugs that his student used to create native bee habitats for a scouting project. Finding two more mugs, a little spray paint, additional paper straws and they were ready to make their appearance in the Darden yard.

Ultimately the habitats got put together.  Bees were seen buzzing around the habitats as soon as they got hung.

This has also been a time to work on our potted plants.  This gerbera daisy had outgrown its pot and needed to be divided.

I’ve also started some seeds in pots and had pretty good luck.  The sprouts seen below are french radishes – yum.  The flat of seeds (on the left) were planted within the last several days.  As of this post………………………I’m still waiting for some action to be seen!  Come on little guys – push up through the soil!

We’ve been harvesting cabbage  for several weeks from plants we started last Fall. We’ve harvested a total of 3 heads with 3 more remaining.  Also in the photo is some kale.  We had several pots, along with some collard greens and mustard greens and have been eating them the last month while also freezing the blanched greens for later.

This next task I’ve done several times since we lived here,  but it seemed like a waste to put the completed project back where it came from.  These chairs were brought from Indiana when my family moved here.  They are super, super comfortable.  A few cans of spray paint and voila!  We now have ‘presentable’ chairs for sitting.  Oh yeah, finally  had to buy some more nuts & bolts since the others had rusted.  Eric stopped by our local home improvement store to pick some up – ultimately this ended up being a joint project.

Once put back together, I asked “Isn’t there a better place to put these so we can truly enjoy them?”.  Man – love their new spot.  Moving the chairs to the front of the garage is probably one of the BEST things we have done.  Why didn’t we think of it before?????

Surrounded by some of our flowering pots, this is now our favorite spot to sit after supper.  Again, why didn’t we think of this before.  Now, if I just had a fire pit in the fall………..

I’m ending with a little bit of whimsey that was not my doing – initially.  A few years ago, a pink painted ladybug was discovered in my birdbath near the sidewalk.  I did not have anything to do with it.  I assumed whoever placed it in the birdbath would eventually come back to claim it.  They never did.  It faded and I repainted it – using the wrong paint and the color didn’t stay.

Back to the store for a different type of paint.  However, the pink ladybug looked lonely.  I painted one of my Iceland rocks and now the ladybug has a friend.  They make me smile.  Those other ‘rocks’ in the birdbath………….oyster shells from Apalachicola Bay.

Ginny