Skipping Church

I skipped church yesterday and went to Flower World instead.. (music screeching to a halt..) I am sure that God was with me, because I was blessed by the fragrant smells of Spring that I had been craving.  I don't think I need a building to help me feel close to God.

Here is a blurry photo of our house in December of 2008.  We had just moved in a couple of months before.  See all of the bushes next to the driveway?  I could not wait to get them out of there.  The following photos will show you what we have done since then.

Goodbye ugly bushes, hello garden.  I don't know what to do about that curb, the pavers don't sit quite right on top of it.  We will have to play around and see what happens.  We ran the garden all along the railing.

See?

I had a great time with the Lord as I planted these flowers and cleaned up the old perennials from last year.  Most of my purchases this time are perennials.  I purchased lots of flowers that will be good for vases this summer.

The Lord was NOT, on my side with this garden.  Only two words can describe this impossible plot of garden: Devil Rhododendron. 

See those monster arms reaching up from the ground waiting to strangle me to death?  That's the rhody.  It was 10 feet tall when we moved in and we were going to take it out and just didn't ever acquire the tools to get the job done.  So in desperation to do SOMETHING with this part of the yard, we put the stones around the edge and I spent HOURS yesterday trying to get the weeds out and to vacate some of the roots enough to be able to plant something.  It was HELL.  I gave up and my handsome hubby rescued me while I retreated to the rope chair for a bit.  It took me twenty minutes to get a hole deep enough to put just ONE of those foxgloves in, bad rhody!  Bad, bad rhody!!

I went to a happier place- this metal teapot I purchased at a yard sale last year makes a great home for the garlic chives. Adam drilled some drainage holes in it for me.  They are coming up now.

After mixing in some fertilizer, I managed to plant some carrots, onions and beets. 

The trellis was moved back here after several vines died on me over the winter.  I received a seed packet of Nasturtiums from my candle lady in the mail and planted them under it.  Gardening (except in the rhody devil garden) is not work to me.  I enjoy every second of it.  Thank you, God, for spring!