Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy: Garden Love

Gardening my front lawn has been one of stages. When I first started on it, about two years after moving into our home, I had to pull out the whole section in front of the window.

Where we began!

It was a lot of work, but totally needed and very worth getting done. The following spring, a little over a year ago, I planted a few hedges and flowers. I was quite happy with the work I did and looked forward to watching it grow.

Last spring.....

Unfortunately, my plans to keep up with the garden, with weeding, and adding more flowers, did not come to fruition. You see, I was about 4 months pregnant at the time. It was a warm spring, and I was already having issues with my asthma. When I'm pregnant, my asthma gets worse. With the warmth of last summer, I could barely go outside without having issues breathing. So, working in my garden was not something I could accomplish. I found the situation frustrating, but, in the end, you do what you need to do for your own health and that of your unborn baby. By the time that the weather eased up as well as my asthma, I was 8 months pregnant. The last place I wanted to be was on my knees in a garden.

This spring I have been quite anxious to get back to my garden to work on it. Of course, Mother Nature was not very cooperative. Winter didn't end until early April. Then the storms came in wave after wave. Now that I have two little ones, I also have to work around their schedules to get out there. Finally, in the last week, I was able to get to work.

My baby girl and dog kept tabs on me as I worked in the garden.

My poor garden was a mess. Grass was growing in, weeds were every where, and a strange plant just kind of showed up. Major work was needed! It took me 2 days to get the garden weeded. Just doing that made the garden look much improved! Once that was done, I saw that one plant didn't survive the summer and assessed other needs. I ended up going to a nursery to replace the plant with another perennial (I don't remember the name) and to Lowe's to pick up some begonias, a daylily and mulch.

With some help from my husband who dug a couple of holes for me, I planted the new perennials and begonias. I then added the mulch. Of course, I didn't get enough mulch. So, today I ran to the store and got more. I finished adding the mulch this afternoon and then added a garden gnome I got for Christmas (a Jayhawk basketball player).