Mulcha! Mulcha! Mulcha!

This past week I began the never-ending ritual of summer called gardening. I love it! My precious neighbor, Mr. Birn, asked me why I bother... it is dominion. The Lord has said to take dominion, and I am doing it.
This is what 10 yards of mulch looks like. Generally it takes all day to lay this much mulch. This year it took from 9-5. Not all day in gardening terms. My other neighbor, Jeff, helped me out a lot. I was so happy because it really is a lot of work to do.

Here is the backyard and my trusting garden chariot. It is not a wheel barrow. It is quite different because it has two wheels instead of one. Owen has one like it that is his size. He was busy working away as well. We also planted 10-15 more Hostas this year. I traded them with Emily Vedra for some pink phlox. I think I won- phlox and I are sick of seeing each other. I have removed quite a bit of it from the gardens this year. Steve and Janna have some, Mrs. Jurries has some, randoms from around Alger Heights stopped and got some. I was pleased to share the pinkness.

Here is Owen showing off his new Hibiscus. We just repotted this one for his mother. It is blooming like mad with very nice pink blooms. We gave Oma one when she visited this weekend. I am sure that the summer will be filled with gardening pics, so if you like it, stay tuned!

Garden Gnome

Every gardener appreciates a helper and an encourager in the dirt. Anna is just that for me. She loves to water and to pull weeds (although weeds is a relative term for her).

I hope that Owen loves to play in the dirt as much as Anna and I do. It is great to be able to pass a love down to your children.

This picture was Anna attempting at a pose; but it appears to be a bad attempt at posture and smiling! Cute nonetheless..of course I am biased. Here she appreciates the Hosta entitled, Guacamole. IT gets giant leaves that are giant heart shapes and when full grown, the plant will be about 3 feet in width!
Anna also enjoys checking on all of the garden candles and making sure that the wicks are properly trimmed for use.
Here she admires the purple in this nice flower.
And the roses are always a favorite to her. She calls them 'Anna's bowers'.
It is always important that the water in the bird bath is fresh. Fresh water prevents mosquito growth as well as gives the birds a cool treat.
Enjoying the garden is great. It is fun to read or just to listen to the sounds around you.

I have included a few links that are helpful for those that would like to begin gardening.

what works for beginners

hosta library

plant identifier

Springtime View of Union Avenue

We have our morning coffee and devotions from our sun-room every morning. It is a nice view to watch the sun shine through the windows while we wake-up. Spring is especially nice because you can see all of the flowers come up and begin to open. There are a few different times in the year when the color is so great and vibrant. Come over for devotions and a cup of coffee some morning- it is a great way to start the day.

A Random Day

Let me begin with a prependix (I made that up..Appendix but before. I am sure that out grammarians and lexographers will give me the appropriate term.) : * There will be no announcement on this blog concerning the wedding as of now. All I have to say is that Steve has offered $50 and a steak dinner.

Today after class I was supposed to be doing taxes as well as writing a few papers that are still due before semester's end. It was such a nice day that plans were postponed for a few hours. We went for a walk to one of our favourite breakfast and lunch places. The Real Food Cafe' is a place to enjoy homemade cooking that incorporates butter into every dish. It is yummy. Anna was super excited as shown in the below picture. Owen was attempting to remove his hat so he did not care where we ate as long as the hat was gone. Eventually the hat was removed and he fell asleep. Do not think that it allowed for a peaceful lunch... he awoke seconds before the food arrived.
We ate outside since the place is always so packed that you have to wait in line. The lines are always tight and you have to squeeze next to people that you do not necessarily want to be breathing down your neck. One good thing though, as a blog reader you would love it because you always get to hear someone else's business whether you want to or not. It is like a real-life blog standing in that line. I rarely have the guts to comment though...you cannot be anonymous!
The other thing that was great about today is that Owen's Anterior-Incisors number eight and nine came in. That makes for four teeth. Teeth look funny on a baby at first.
Here is the only way that we can get him to show off the teeth. We hold him upside down and we tickle him until his mouth opens. This shot was too gross with all of the saliva and the nostrils showing. I cut out the mouth so that you could see his great little teeth.
The other thing that we did today is watch Anna garden. She thinks that gardening consists of standing around with a rake and commenting on the flowers that have already bloomed. She also thinks that talking to the statuary is part of the assignment as well. If she only knew the joys that gardening can bring other than talking to concrete children.
Here she is checking out her New Balance shoes. Lyd bought these so that she can wear them on walks. I am not sure why she is so obsessed with them. We try to get her to wear the clogs..but she insists on these little running shoes. I think that she is being influenced by outside sources. We don't wear running shoes.
Sorry no poll today!

Talkin' Turkey

Today I was doing some gardening along the driveway. I was carefully trimming one of my roses when I heard this huge swooshing noise above my head. I looked up and it was a turkey flying out of the old Oak of my neighbors! It flew across the street into the trees behind Saint Joseph's Seminary, but when I went to find it I no longer saw it.

Later in the afternoon I was talking with my other neighbor, Jim (who has lived here 30+ years), and he said that the Garfield Park Nature Preserve used to have a flock of about 30 that flew around from time to time. He was pretty amazed though, he hasn't heard of one being seen for years around the Alger Heights area.

Spring Fling

Our first act of spring was to trim our front tree. The tree is one of those Japanese Maples that are supposed to be about 5-10 feet tall and nicely shaped like a little umbrella. Ours was taller than the house and was not trimmed by the previous owners. We have trimmed the lower branches but the taller ones were unreachable with my pruning equipment.

I went to Alger Hardware and rented a super-long chainsaw-on-a-stick. It reached the top branches nicely and I am quite sore. I now need someone to remove these huge branches.

Thanks For Coming!

Welcome Back Spring! Oh how we have missed you on Union Avenue!

A medium green thumb

The philosophy behind the English garden method of gardening is that you let the plantlife do what it wants to do and you are there to direct it. Every year that we have lived here, I have been more punitive than directive.

I think that this year has been a good year for dominion.

The only thing that has really not worked this year was the grass. Oh well, if youwant tall green grass you can visit the Vedras!