Sweet Relief

Relief has finally arrived. After numerous days of 95 plus degrees, with heat indexes around the 110 degree mark, relief has arrived in the form of a steady, gentle summer rain and a cold front from Canada.

We've had beautiful days and evenings. The heat index made it hard to spend too much time outside. That allowed me to accomplish things inside, as well as out.

I started working in the small backyard flower garden last week. I got all the weeding and trimming done. I put a coat of primer on the fence until I can get the desperately needed paint.

Newton helped by relocating a garden bench from another garden.

I mulched the garden with hay from my sister. It's not my favorite look, I prefer bark, but the price was right and will do for now.

Monday I started re-weeking my front gardens. The plan is to get them cleaned up, the in the fall, I'm planning on relocating more of the perennials to dress up the newly cleaned gardens.

 

I added this small bird bath and an old wind chime.

I am finding that getting the gardens done is best done first thing in the morning. The sun isn't exactly up, but it is light enough to see . . . 6:30 a.m. - sorry, night owls :)

I spend 30 - 60 minutes weeding. :(

It is a necessary evil. The end results are worth the time spent.

My week began in the garden we pulled the bench from. This only took about 30 minutes and rain started. I finished just in time.

I filled two trash cans and used about an hour to only get partially done on this garden

I still have the far left corner to finish. That won't take too long.

It's taken all spring to find my green thumb and motivation. Part of that is just finding and making a good time to get it done. The motivation came with that.

There will be plants broken down and relocated. That's one of the best things about perenials, you never run out of plants.

Sometimes there are seedlings to relocate too

These got fairly large. I'm moving them any way, hoping for the best. These plants I got from Mom, who got them from her dad's garden many, many years ago. I wasn't particularly protective of them. This makes me really grateful that they were persistent, because now they have a place in my garden for good, They come back and reseed every year.

Wednesday started a little slower and later. I didn't get out until around 7:30 a.m. This garden had more to clear out than I had anticipated on Tuesday. It took about an hour to finish.

As I worked it I was also weeding the long garden on that side as you can see in the foreground of the photo.

The 30-60 minutes each morning has greatly contributed to how I feel about my yard and the overall joy I feel for making it a priority. This allows me time to do other things throughout the day - so it's not taking time away from sewing or stitching. It's also allowed me to slow down and enjoy the processes. And even more surprising, I feel like I'm getting more done than I originally planned.

This, unfortunately, is what is still left to do in the front yard. This was done earlier in the spring and obviously didn't last long enough. The spring rains came and the weeds took over.  It will most likely take all of the next week to get this finished, and I will.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with the things that make and keep you happy.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Psalms 46:1 NIVUK