I have often heard the term “Gentleman Farmer”, I assumed it meant someone who had a farm but really did not farm it or get his hands dirty. Well I am a “Lady Gardener” (new term, I just came up with). I come from a long line of gardeners, both of my grandmothers, my mother and my mother in law all loved to have a garden and to tend to their flowers. I too, love to have a garden and love the flowers that come to life from a garden, but the best I have ever been is a weekend gardener.
As with my arts and crafts, which is two hobbies in one. You see buying and planning for arts and crafts projects is totally different that doing them! I enjoy both, but seem to spend more time in shopping for supplies and new projects than completing projects. The same is true for how I garden, I love to shop for plants, anytime, anywhere! It is just lots of fun. But, those plants have to be planted, watered and trended to so they may produce those flowers. When I was younger, I was able to do most of it myself, but it was great when my son was old enough to water as part of his chores. He watered for me, till he left for college!
When I moved to the beach, I was not used to a growing season of all year! I used to baby my herbs along so I would have sage for thanksgiving, but many years, it had burned up long before turkey cooking time. I was thrilled to have blooms most of the year down here and my herbs go all year, if I bring them in for a freeze, but that means I have to deal with the chores of the garden all year. I was doing good to get a few good months in.
I did not really have a clue what would grow and what would not, but I brought some plants and all of my rocks with me. The hubby had second thoughts when he saw “my rocks” when packing me up to move down here. I have always loved the Big Bend area of Texas and went often. Part of the fun was finding rocks, big and small and bringing them back to my garden. Each rock had a story (but some of those stories escape me now). We only put in a small garden area and made sure it would not interfere with the mowing of the yard. I just brought plants of all kinds, was gifted plants and put them all in the garden, with no order or even a thought of how it would go together as it began to grow. I lost most of it during two freezes, but kept buying those plants to replace it. With me working and traveling, I had to depend on hiring someone to do most of the tending and that was getting harder and harder to find, but I was not ready to give up the garden. But now I have to deal with my age and physical ability to do the garden.
I really did not know what I wanted to do and really considered just giving it all up, but I so enjoyed the blooms of the flowers and seeing what would come up. I would plant anything! What to do began to weigh on me.
With retirement, I would have more time and we all know the more you do something, your body gets used to it, but I did not think I wanted to fight weeds all year. I decided to see what was out there as far as someone who could help get the hot mess of a garden into shape and help me find a way to keep it up. I had seen lots of gardens on Facebook and would spend time driving around looking at what others were doing. I reached out to a few people and companies to see what they might suggest. As often happens, calls were not returned or they never showed up. But then I saw a post of Facebook about Lawn Sharks new service of planning gardens and weed control, so I made a call and got a call back right away! The first time I met Stacy (the owner) and Mindi (the garden guru) I just had a feeling that this was going to be a really neat thing and it was! I explained about my plants and how I really did not want to get rid of them but needed them to look like a garden and not a hoarder’s garden. I shared the story of my rocks and how I wanted them to be a part of it all, but really had no clue what that looked like. And most of all, I did not want to have to weed all of the time. We met a few more times and they presented a plan! They suggested that we remove and replant everything, put down a weed control system and bring in some borders (and we could use stone and rock!) . We finalized it with a contract, which I really loved as it lets both parties know what is to be expected.
The work started, and Mindi and I planned and changed the plan and dreamed, and often as we were talking Cori would just make it happen! We decided to use limestone, which I love and is so good to use to accent colors from. They pulled out each plant and nursed them till they could go back in. The husband got into the fun, as he wanted to make sure his mother’s daylilies made it back into the garden. I love lilies and several years ago, my dear friend, Charlotte, was selling her house and came over and not only gave me but helped me plant tons of lilies, many of which she had for years and had been in her family. The only problem was I did not know what was what unless it was blooming. But, we sorted and grouped and cared for them all, so they would have a new home.
One features of my garden was a blue bottle tree. After the hurricane Katrina I made a trip to New Orleans with Episcopal Community Services to see some of the work that was being done. In the middle of all the destruction there was a garden all made of non-plants and not a flower in site, but it was so meaningful. I took a picture of a bottle tree. It was on my refrigerator for years, but never came to pass till my sweet husband surprised me one Christmas with one! He had his friend Russel, the welder, make it for me and it was just as beautiful as the one I saw. I wanted to make sure that it played a role in the new garden. They took my many pots of succulents and made a small garden within the garden and I have my very own dragonfly !
So, I now have a great space with a not only a weed control system but a sprinkler system, no more pulling hoses across the driveway to water. It was a delight to watch and to be part of. Lawn Sharks did all I asked and more, they showed up when they said they would, stayed with our price and were just fun to get to know. One of the best parts was taking some of the bulbs back to Charlotte, who had just brought a new house and now had some of her bulbs back.
Now all I have to do is sit back and watch my garden grow !
The pictures do not do it justice, but you can tell the before and after.
