Garden-1, Los Rodriguez-0.
In all fairness, the garden had a head start, say, maybe 10+ years of overgrowth, negligence and well-established, Texas sized weeds in its favor. When we bought the house, the goal was to whip it into shape, but I barely made a dent in it with the remaining planting time of last year, so this year it is time to be aggressive. I really should have taken before/after photos!
As of now, we have cleaned out 2 garden beds and planted Cosmos, Zinnia, Canna, Hosta, Elephant Ears, Delphinium, 2 Rose bushes, Geraniums, Blue Bonnets, and Daisies. One of those garden beds was what I had planted in last year, so it wasn't so bad...the other had big roots from a bush someone had left there...it had grown into a tree and took Ricardo about 2 hours to dig up. Most of what we planted are seeds/bulbs, but there's hope the yard will start looking better!
Last week Carrie was here and we gardened for several hours on the first perfectly pleasant and lovely Wednesday Dallas has seen this year. Sunny, about 70 degrees, no rain...Ricardo and I had already removed a strip of grass in front of the house so we could plant there: Carrie and I had fun with Azaleas, more Elephant Ears and Hosta, Zinnias, Gladiolae, and Calla Lilies!! I'm getting ready for those bulbs to grow! We planted the sweetest little Johnny jump-ups around the tree we have in the front too.
Today I also started some of our containers with vegetables: squash, zucchini, carrots, lettuce, jalapenos, rhubarb, and tomatoes...and transplanted some of the herbs I've had growing since last year. I was able to keep most of them growing year round, since I brought them inside for the winter. The Basil didn't make it, it was huge and beautiful (3 feet tall and still growing!), thus making it more attractive to all the caterpillars who stripped it last September. Everything else is going strong, but my Pineapple Sage got really leggy and spindly...anyone know how to reign that in?
It was a fun and exciting day, but now that the end of it has come, we're both feeling the results (sore shoulders, sore knees) and the bad news is that we're not even half-way done yet. There are still 4 more (huge) garden beds to dig up and get planted. Right now, those are hosting weeds 1-2 ft. tall. And that is just the front yard. We won't talk about the back.
The neighborhood we live in has a garden club that awards a "Garden/Lawn/Landscaping of the Month" sign to a different home each month. Maybe someday it will grace our front yard. Then I'll definitely be posting a picture.
