pauses&clicks

For all of my adult life I’ve moved frequently so my gardening has been done in containers and pots. I’ve seldom witnessed planting perennials in the ground and seeing them emerge from the dirt and flower in subsequent years. I’ve enjoyed the bulbs and seeds that others have planted in the yards of houses I’ve lived in and the bulbs and seeds I’ve planted over the years are hopefully still flowering long after I’ve gone for the pleasure of others but I’ve not had the opportunity to plan and nurture garden beds over a length of time.

For the past several years I’ve not even planted in pots due to a move two summers ago and putting our home on the market last year.

However, this year is different….this year I’m settling into a home that I plan to be in for a while.

This year I got my hands into the dirt and came away with the earth under my fingernails.

I still planted in pots because I like the seasonal color next to my front door and on the patio.

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But I also started a perennial garden in my backyard and planted a grouping of butterfly and hummingbird plants in front of our new home.  The area by the patio doesn’t look like much right now as it still needs to be mulched and the plants are young but there’s such satisfaction in knowing I’ll be here season after season to watch these flowers grow and expand.  I really had no idea what I was doing in selecting the plants, just sort of winged it at the nursery and planted them where it seemed to make sense.

That said, I’m sure I’ll need to move things and replant them when they start to crowd each other out or I discover they need sun at different times of the day but for now I’m simply content in imagining  the possibilities to come and knowing I’ll see this yard and these flower beds evolve over a period of years.

For this retired military spouse with 26 moves under her belt that seems miraculous!

Stay tuned for more photos later in the season when everything has matured.  Hopefully I’ll discover that at least one of my thumbs is green.

And if not, I really did enjoy digging in the dirt.