Garden Progress

Thanks to some really nice friends, on Saturday morning I was able to go into an old over grown garden and dig up some really nice flowers that were being choked out by weeds.  My friends rent a home in an established neighborhood in Atlanta and the previous owner of the house was obviously very into gardening, like it was beautiful at a point in time and had signs labeling the plants and had some serious money put into it.  Now that the house is being rented, the garden isn't being kept up and some of the flowers were starting to die, which is sad, so they said I could come and get whatever I wanted.  Come Saturday morning off I went armed with trash bags to line the trunk of the car, a shovel and some gloves.  I couldn't fit everything I wanted in the car...lucky for me they said I could come back whenever I wanted.  Selfish I know, but I am saving the plants so my selfishness is for the good of mother earth right...please agree and make me feel better, thanks!  I ended up with about 4 of what I think is a tiger lily that will look like this

and a HUGE clump of lambs ear that I was able to seperate and put in multi locations across the yard as it will grow back really well.  Lambs ear looks like this, and it even feels furry just like the name says it should

As a reminder our back yard has a patio level which is where most my work this spring has been taking place.  The patio would be at the top of the long part of a capital L and the side of the house/airconditioning unit at the end of the short part of the L.  Maybe this will help you get the lay of the land...

Here is what the "short side of the L" looked like in the beginning of April, sort of a mess, pieces of some old mini wood fence, weeds everywhere, just not very pretty

Here is the same area at the beginning of May, a little cleaned up, no weeds, some flowers planted are starting to grow and we added some chairs (only one is pictured for some weird reason though)

And here is the long part of the L at the beginning of May, this is right after we built the raised beds, planted some seedlings and move the pots so they get the full sun they need

And finally here is what it looks like today!  Flowers growing, no weeds, there is some new lambs ear right in the middle, slowly but surely it is becoming beautiful!  The new tiger lilies are right in front of the air conditioner, but still a little hard to see as they were a little droopy from the move.  They should bounce back in a week or two though!

Long side, zucchini, squash, peppers and tomatoes growing in the raised beds.  Lambs ear running down the right side and herbs overflowing from the pots

and check it out the other chair finally appeared

I love those chairs!  My new favorite place to sit back, read a magazine and enjoy a cold cocktail after a day of gardening - whoever invented zero gravity chairs is a genius!  Please forgive the glare from the white thighs...

And obviously I couldn't have done it without my assistant Ralph!

As happy as I am with all the progress, it is slow going.  That is the thing about gardening, there is no "quick fix."  It takes time for things to become beautiful and colorful and lush.  I can't wait until this area is full of color and vibrant and looks like the cover of Better Homes and Gardens, but I have to remember some of those gardens are 20 years in the making and this is my first spring here.  I will just keep looking for plants that need rescuing, scouting the clearance aisle at Lowe's and working in the garden on the weekends....and maybe in a few years I will make it on that cover!

Sincerely Loving Food and Flowers,

Lainey