So I've never gardened before nor have I blogged before (if that is even a verb) and there was a period of time in my life when I had a great level of disdain for gardening. The disdain stemmed from having to help my Mum with her gardening as a teenager - watering, planting and general garden up keep. I could never understand why my Mum liked gardening so much as it seemed like it required so much effort. I know understand why . . .
As a disclaimer I would like to state that I have no idea what I am doing and to those experienced gardeners this will probably become abundantly clear.
I moved into a new house at the end of March that had a beautiful outdoor space, by beautiful I mean a large yard with lots of room to hangout, but really all it consisted of was some sandy, rocky soil around the perimeter and clover in the middle. There had been a kidney shaped pool in the yard previously so imagine kidney shaped clover with sandy, rocky soil where the edge of the pool would have been.
As those of you who live in Ottawa know Spring and Summer for that matter came early this year. So, I set about the task of "cleaning up the backyard," as soon as I could because I wanted to enjoy the backyard. So day one of working in the garden consisted of mowing the clover, raking and here is what the garden looked after day one. Post day one I realized that I really liked working in the garden . . . so does that mean that I really like gardening?? Yes, that is exactly what it means. If I needed another sign to tell me that I have become my mother then I just got it - gardening become my new passion overnight.
So, then post-clean up I decided that the next step would be to get some patio stones for my dog Siska to lie on so that she didn't lie in the dirt and then drag that dirt inside the house and lie on the white couch as she has been known to do . . . I digress. So, off I went to Home Depot and purchased 14 flagstones I believe they are called - why
I chose the number 14 I will never know, but there you have it. When I came home I was informed by my ever helpful friend that prior to laying out flagstones you need to flatten out the ground and then have sand, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All I could think to myself was that there was absolutely no way that I was going to do all of that in order to have a place for my dog to lie down so I used my mother's sage advice and used the stones as a border for the flower bed and the herd garden. Once again my Mum offered some sage advice pointing out that I had a lot of area to work with and if I wanted a rocky area to the garden I should go and get some river stones and mulch. I followed the advice - stage
two. I have to say that it was at this particular stage that I truly fell in love with gardening. I mean there are few things in life that give you instant gratification, there are a few that come to mind immediately, but that sense of euphoria is generally short lived and then it's on to the next. With gardening though you put in the effort - the work and then you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour for an extended period of time. The sense of "look at what I have created," doesn't go away because you are able to continue to look at it and enjoy it, as well as most importantly share it with others.
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