Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Backyard Part II

Last Saturday morning, Scott and I went to our park with the express purpose of 'beautifying' it. We took big, black trash bags and latex gloves and divided to conquer. They say that Allston is the City of Broken Glass. This is true. It's probably documented somewhere that there are broken beer bottles littered all over the woodsy parts of our park! Giant rocks thrust up everywhere and have met the fate of spray paint. We picked up Fourth of July trash, old jeans, beer cans, broken glass, dog doo, left over Chinese takeout and the list gets worse. Yuck. But it felt good when we were done and we even had some dog walkers thank us.

When we got home, Scott thought it would be fun to ride our bikes over to a nearby nursery. No sooner did we arrive, than it was confirmed that we were going to plant a garden. (I hadn't yet convinced Scott of all the work I wanted to put into the backyard).

This pretty yard ornament was something like a wind chime, but made of different colored shells. The sound made when the wind blew was incredible. It resembled trickling water. I wanted one, but this one was $70! They had one that looked like a chandelier, all white, for $799.


The flowers were breathtaking.


See the little guy in flight?

We bought four green bean plants, two zucchini, two squash, six tomato, three red pepper, one basil, one sage, one mint, four impatiens, a bottle of fertilizer, and a bag of compost....and guess what we didn't have?


Um...we don't have a car anymore, so we made two trips on our bikes, very creatively. We put a tray of plants in the bottom of a trash bag and carried the bag on the side! It was an adventure.


Remember all the weeds that used to border that wall??

We finished tilling our chosen spot around 10 o'clock that night by the light of a floodlight we found in the basement. It looks fertile and inviting!


Here is the view from the top of the stairs.

Sunday afternoon, planting was as easy as 1, for our blisters, 2 for our sunburns and 3 for our bug bites and rat sightings! Ha, ha, ha!

This spot was chosen because it has the most sun all day long. I am so excited to do more. To the right, I want to mulch in a grilling area and to the left, plant a flower garden...


7 comments:

jeny said...

It's just beautiful. All your hard work shows. Good job!!

ANGEL said...

WOWIE-ZOWIE WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!! I can't wait to see how beautiful it's gonna be when those plants take off :)

I don't know if you've had a lot of rain there but I've got a great tip to help with keeping the moisture at the roots. Get a bag of kitty litter...then before you put your plants in (I see you've already put some in so this is for future)fill the hole with water and then pour some litter in the hole then your plants...finally water really good.

The Oil-Dri (a-k-a kitty litter) will hold the water at the roots and your plants will grow much faster!

Have an awesome day :)

Love you's...

~A~

Jayme said...

Thanks, Ang. I used to use something that did the same thing when I was working for Bethel Maintenance during my summers as their 'flower girl.' But I had forgotten all about it and had never heard of using kitty litter before. Great idea! Love you..

Brittani Renee said...

Good work! Can't wait to see it in person :wink wink:

Christine said...

Jayme, you guys amaze me. I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes because I am so proud of what you accomplished together. I admire your dedication to your vision of a beautiful garden. -Despite the rats, poison ivy, and the hard hard work. I LOVE being able to see it. And I love YOU. ;)

jeny said...

Noah left some comments on the previous post. Be sure to look back at them!

love you!

jeny said...

"I like your writing, it was so sweet and I wanted to write back to you. I love you and I miss you Aunt Jayme and Uncle Scott. And I also like your pictures. They're so nice; I really like your house. I hope to see you soon!
Love, Noah
I love you Aunt Jayme and Uncle Scott, I just wanted to say that again."