Friday, September 30, 2011

The State of My Garden

In a word...scary.  Seriously.  Take a look.  Would you want to walk in here?






I certainly haven't wanted to in quite some time and it shows.  I'm afraid of what I might scare up.  I startled a little bunny rabbit last week and I also saw a beautiful Western garner snake.  But I'm not sure what other sinister critters may be hiding out in this mess.  I only have one garden bed that is still growing stuff and that's my sweet potato bed.  And I peeked in there a couple of days ago and oh my goodness, will I have sweet potatoes!  But that's for another post :)

The current state of my garden is also very embarrassing for me.  I have Never.Ever. let my garden get so overgrown and messy.  I still can't believe it looks so bad.  But this summer, it has just been too darn hot to get out there and work it.  And it still is.  It was 99 degrees yesterday...and it's the end of September for crying out loud!




Anyway, I have been procrastinating long enough.  It's time I did something to clean up this mess and get my garden back!  And I've also done something else I've never done before concerning my garden.  I actually hired a crew to clean it out.


It pains me to admit this.  I've always taken great pride in my garden, in how productive and beautiful it is (usually), and in doing all the work myself.  But I finally admitted to myself that I needed help.  And look what they've done!

They cleaned out all the beds



mowed all the weeds down to the ground,  laid a weed mat around the entire garden floor and put down a 6-inch layer of mulch, turned over all the soil in all the beds and spread a bag and half of compost I had laying around.  I was out there yesterday morning before they finished the job and couldn't believe how much better it looked already!




Of course the puppies were very curious as to what this was all about...not to mention all these great new smells!  It was also a treat for them because my garden is usually off limits.





And see what it looks like now!  I have my beautiful garden queendom back! 










Many thanks to Mark and his crew for all their hard work!

Harry and I leave in a couple of days for two weeks in Paris and Holland.  When we get back, all I have to do is add some compost to a few beds and plant my fall and winter garden.  Yay!  I'm anxious to get back into my garden.  I've really missed it these past couple of months.  I'm also anxious to get back to blogging.  I've missed that and y'all too!  Of course, I probably lost a lot of you guys too during my lil break :/

Thank you all for your patience and encouraging words in my last two posts.  Hopefully, I will be back online by the middle of October.  Until then, bon voyage! :)

11 comments:

  1. Hmm, Diane, I will treat this as a confession. You will be absolved from your sins only if you post some nice photos of your vacation in Paris - including some of the food you eat! Have a great time.

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  2. Yay, a clean slate! Sometimes that's what you gotta do. Enjoy your trip! Can't wait to hear/read about it afterward.

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  3. Woohoo! A clean slate! Have a wonderful vacation, Diane...see you soon ;)

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  4. Thanks Beth and Cat! Been here a day and Paris is amazing! We had a fabulous dinner tonight and are about to head to the veranda of the hotel for a night cap :)

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  5. Ah, my garden is always overgrown and messy! But then, I like gardening on the wild side!

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  6. PS: At least you COULD walk in yours. I have a little path to my planter box...forget walking all around it. But then, I had reasons. The plants growning behind it I THOUGHT were these wildflowers with these gorgeous pink flowers that bloom around September. NOPE! I had the wrong ones! They covered my yard when it was truely wild, but this year I haven't seen them.

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  7. I love Paris and really want to go back! bon voyage! No worries on the crazy garden. TX has been through hell and back and you're to be commended for being optimistic enough to even consider gardening again!

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  8. Hi Gale...there's a difference between a little overgrown and complete chaos in a garden. Mine was at the complete chaos stage! But not anymore :)

    Hi TS...Paris is beautiful and our weather has been perfect, although a bit warm! I am optimistic about my garden but I just pray (pray!) is cools off soon!

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  9. Yea! So glad that you are back in action! I just got back from staying in San Antonio for four days! I had such fun running around and even made it out to Boerne and Comfort for some antiquing - I totally thought of you and your lovely blog AND yummy recipes! Have fun on the little ol' trip that is coming up!! LOL!

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  10. Hi Diane,

    I hope you're having an awesome week! I thought you might like this infographic I helped build about the health, mental, and financial benefits of gardening (http://blog.lochnesswatergardens.com/how-gardening-benefit/).

    If you think your readers would like it too, please feel free to use it on Diane's Texas Garden blog. There's code at the bottom of our post that makes it super easy to post on your blog. It's all free (of course). If you have any questions about posting it, let me know and I'll try to help.

    I don't know where else to contact you so I just posted a comment here. :)

    Thanks!

    ~ Janey
    janealvarado83@gmail.com

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