4:30 PM

The Saga of My Backyard Garden

Hi all! I have been looking forward to sharing my backyard garden with you for a while now, but I have had many obstacles that have come in the way of doing that. To be honest, I still do but, more about that later.

So, my daughter was able to enlist some paid weeding help from some Senior students who were graduating from the private school at which my daughter teaches. They are industrious young men who have started their own landscaping company for the summer. I was overjoyed to hear about them because the back garden of my home is loaded with tall growing grasses and weeds that were making it impossible for me to truly garden the way I wanted to. I do not have the strength because of arthritis in my hands to do the weeding myself and my husband, who is still working, does not have the time. It was wonderful to enlist the boys to do the job. The only problem was that they were busy Seniors, and they were not able to get to the task until the beginning of June, making my gardening process to be put off for weeks past the time I normally would be fully engaged.

Finally, the day came and the boys, after 5 hours of work, rendered my garden grass and weed free. This was the result after their marvelous work ↓. It created an empty canvas in which for me to work. I was so, so excited!

I was all set to go! There is a blogger I follow who is probably in my age bracket who mentioned that she has moved from annual flowers to perennials in her garden. She is doing this so that there will be less work each summer for her to do. Planting annuals is a lot of work and while perennials also are a lot of work to plant, they come back year after year, if you are lucky. This creates less work overall in the long run for the gardener. She was speaking my language considering my arthritic hands. I set out to add perennials this year with more to come in years to come. Perennials, flowers in general, are expensive so I was pacing myself but, was gleeful at the thought of the whole thing.

Another part of my strategy was to choose plants that deer do not like to eat because I have a huge problem with deer rash in the yard.

To that end, I purchased this False Indigo Baptisia. I had read that deer no not like it.

I added in three new plants of catmint, also something deer are not supposed to like.

This woe-be-gone dianthus was something I transplanted to the garden after it had fully bloomed earlier in the spring. I am hoping with some fertilizer it will rebloom later in the season.

For some reason I do not have a picture of the sedum and late season daisies I planted. Both of these plants I was given by my daughter's neighbor, Susan. She is such a nice lady. She is always giving me plants. That reminds me, I need to share one of my plants with her!

Oh and, I also planted some peony tubers I had gotten on a late sale from Lowes. No guarantee they will grow but, I am hopeful.

My goal was to make the right side of the garden as full and lush as the left side.

The spikey yellow flowers were in the garden when I moved in two and a half years ago. I have no idea what they are called but they are hardy and spread all over. They are great! I added in the pink foxglove this year. We'll see if they show up next season. I usually have to plant them every year. You may get a stray that transplants itself but, for me, that's it. Maybe this new location will work out better. We'll see!

I added this perennial salvia when I moved in two summers ago. It has been coming back every year since. Yay!

I love this side of the garden, although by July I usually need to bring in some annuals, just to spruce it up a bit. You see I have already planted some marigolds. Deer don't like marigolds, supposedly.

This is my beginning attempt at filling in the right side of the garden with perennials. My plan was to take more photos

after I had planted more of them but, something happened to change my plan. The deer came back! They ate my rose bushes, the late-blooming daisies, the Baptisia and...

the coneflowers I had planted last year and had had such high hopes for. They are nothing but sticks now. So upsetting, I can't tell you. So, even if you read about deer resistant flowers, there is no guarantee that deer will not come and eat them. So frustrating!

This is the only rose bud I have left on my roses. Again...soooo upsetting!

But I am the eternal optimist when it comes to my garden and somewhat of a fighter in this regard too. My husband ran out and got wire fencing to put around the garden. It is only temporary because it is not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen but, we are going to try it to see if it eases some of the deer rash. I just cannot bear the heartache of ruined flowers anymore.