Sunday, May 31, 2009

Welcome All Little Pastel Birdies

We've spent huge swaths of time neglecting the children while working on our yard. Sorry kids, we've found a new favorite hobby, the raising-small-children one was just too expensive. Now we've moved on to the only slightly less expensive gardening. Although we've spent many, many hours on it, for some reason we have very little to show for our efforts. (We've found this to be the case with child-rearing, too.) However, I do think the tiny portion of mud between the wall of the shed and the retaining wall is looking mighty cute. Here's how it was:
And here's how it is today:
We've planted a couple butterfly bushes, siskiyou, tiny ground coverings of various ilks to see which one we like the best and a lot of mulch. I would really like it if the mulch would grow and spread... Below the retaining wall, where there are still great hunks of bumpy concrete carelessly left by the makers of said wall and the patio, we've planted the beginnings of our herb garden. Rosemary, mint, parsley, sage and basil. Oh, and a rose bush for Kate, who earned it by being very well behaved at Lowes. Sarah was also very good at Lowes but didn't give a rat's ass about getting some stupid plant. Now we know.
The bird houses were the girls' Christmas gifts from Uncle Steve and Aunt Jo Jo last Christmas. We've lacked a good spot for them until now. The wall seemed to be begging for them. Hopefully, gaging the rapid growth of butterfly bushes below, some nice bird families will move in. I'll keep you posted, of course.

5 comments:

Amelia said...

I found the first paragraph of this post comparing the financial merits of child rearing and gardening to be extremely entertaining.

And I LOVE butterfly bushes. Because, true to their name, they bring butterflies which is just lovely.

*pal said...

We have a family membership to the Butterfly Estates here, and they have recommended all manner of different flowers, plants and bushes to attract the lovely, fluttery creatures. Now that my herb/veggie garden is pretty well-rooted, time to move onto the accoutrement. :)

oh, and the gardening/parenting comparison? priceless.

LMP said...

When I was pregnant with Sarah I planted a little herb garden in window boxes. I reasoned that in my fecund state, I should be able to grow anything. Window boxes need to be watered daily, especially when the state is in a major drought. We had Sarah and got stuck at the hospital an extra day and 1/2 waiting for some lab test results. The herb garden died. It was a little nerve-wracking to bring a brand new baby home to find the last thing I'd try to raise completely dead. For some reason, ever since then, gardening and mothering have been linked in my head.

Unknown said...

how cute! you have a lot to show for both! look at that cutie in the gorgeous garden!

Anni said...

Looks great! and I love the paint color.