I know, I have disappeared yet again! Life has a funny way, of throwing you off your game. I like routine, and while I was looking forward to the school year starting, I had not realized how full my life was going to be. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lovely life with a sweet family, but finding time to carve out for the blog hasn’t happened. I’m still trying to figure that out. I miss writing and sharing and I have felt a little lost. I remember someone telling me that with kids it just gets busier (and harder) the older they get. At the time I had a baby who wasn’t sleeping through the night and needed A LOT of attention, so it was hard to imagine that to be the case. Now I would partially agree. We don’t over schedule our kids, but there is still a lot going on. Between school, homework, soccer and spending quality time with the kids it is pretty exhausting (although I would say not as tiring as having a small baby). I also have kids who like to be where ever we are, even my 6 year old generally prefers to play right by us (i.e. I am constantly stepping on legos). I am trying to savor this time because before I know it he will be hiding up in his room, but there are times when I wonder whether I will ever have real alone time again. My brain has felt really scattered, like I can’t put a complete though together. So please try and bear with me as I try to get back up and move forward.
So anyway back to the house and the garden and design…
I have managed to squeeze some gardening in the last couple of weekends thanks to some glorious weather and some strategically planned play dates. I decided last weekend to create the last piece of planting bed that I have been envisioning for a while. I mentioned my love of southern magnolias last time I wrote. Well of course after I searched out the perfect tree for the driveway and paid full price for the South Magnolia ‘Kay Parris’, I stopped at Home Depot the next week and guess what they had? Southern Magnolia ‘Little Gem’. Curses! I had checked there the week before I bought my tree and they didn’t have anything like that. The only good thing was that the price was not that much less than the nursery, so I didn’t feel too terrible. Since then I have been stopping over to the plant section about once a week to see what they have and more importantly to check to see when everything would go on clearance. Every year around this time they will start marking all of the plants down (to clear space for the Christmas trees!). Well last Thursday was finally the day! 50% off all perennials, shrubs and trees! They were just putting the sign up when I pulled up on my lunch break. I quickly assessed the situation and got a cart. I probably squealed like a school girl.
There were still a couple of Little Gems in stock. I stood there starring at them. $35 was pretty enticing. So I kept trying to think where I would put another one. Eventually I would like to replace our bamboo with several of these, but that project isn’t happening any time soon. I finally decided to pick one up and figure it out after I got home. I also scored a couple of pear trees for $11 a piece for the side yard, a few small Nandinas and some really cute coral bells (Heuchera ‘Circus’).
Once I got home I spent some time moving my new tree around, trying to find a place for it. We have some more sun near our shed after some tree trimming (which removed a large portion of our old birch tree) and removing dead branches from the cedar. I decided that it was time to add the planting bed next to the shed. And if I strategically placed the new magnolia I could provide an additional buffer to the street. In the diagram above you can see the view that I am trying to block. It is hard to photograph but the general idea is that when you are on the deck this will eventually provide some more visual separation between the backyard and the street and adjacent driveway. It also allows for the tree to be out where I can touch the leaves and admire the flowers in the spring.
I filled in the remainder of the planting bed with some of my new coral bells and some miscellaneous other plants and hostas. I’m not quite sure whether this falls into part sun or not. This area tends to get dry due to the large tree roots. I think it may take some experimenting to get the bed to succeed!
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I’ve got a long overdue date night scheduled with Mr. S!
