Homekeeper Challenge #3

This week was inspired by this beautiful flower. It was hiding around the side of our house, a wonderful splash of sunny yellow to welcome spring. And so I have decided (not lightly) to begin gardening.

It is important to note here that I know less than nothing about gardening. Until today, I thought those beautiful bunches of blue were flowers...but nope, they're weeds. And upon finding that out, I had no idea what I was supposed to do about them.

So today the boys and I hiked over to Home Depot and picked up one of those weed-pullers (I don't even know what the proper name is!) and I spent the better part of the afternoon attacking the backyard. We are somewhat cheating for our lawn care - we discovered that the price of buying all the fertilizer etc. is nearly the cost of having someone come in and do it for us! With James being so busy and the boys keeping my attention, we just figured it would be easier all around. (However, I did go over to Home Depot, got a quick rundown on lawn care, and bought all the soil and fertilizer. Now I have to take it all back!)

At any rate, I kept at it while Colin ran around with his shovel, trying to help scoop up the weeds, and after two hours it looked as though I had aerated the lawn! And yet there are still huge patches of those little blue flowers.

You know, they really are kind of pretty. Between my aching back and sunburn, I'm contemplating leaving them and calling them my "random garden".

This will be an ongoing project, as I really would love to at least have the gardens left to me by the previous house owners in presentable shape. I'm also hoping to grow a little vegetable garden in the back. Before today if you'd asked me if I'd ever garden, the answer would have been a big fat no. But I truly enjoyed my time in the yard today. I guess everything changes once you've got your very own piece of land to cultivate and care for.

By the way...anyone reading this who has a better grasp on gardening than I, if you're interested and willing to come over and give me a few pointers and tutorials to get me started, I would be beyond grateful. So grateful I will trade a good lunch, free babysitting or other offering in return!