Gardening

I have never been fond of gardening or yard work. It's mostly about the bugs. Okay, it's all about the bugs. I also hate getting dirt under my fingernails. I helped weed gardens a lot growing up. My grandparents had a large garden that we would go help with all summer. It would end in the fall with a lot of canning. I remember many days weeding early in the day. 

The past houses Matt and I have owned came with nicely landscaped yards. I didn't keep up with them very well. I did the minimal it took to not totally kill everything. It was okay but not great. Then we moved into our current house. The yard and house have not been taken care of for a long time. Flowers and plants have been growing anywhere they please with reckless abandon. It is nothing like our past two houses. Among all the plants, there are rocks. Many, many rocks. 

Although I don't love gardening, I have been all in on cleaning up this yard and making it make sense and hopefully beautiful. It started with ripping out a lot of plants. McKay and I started digging out plants, and every time our shovel went down into the dirt, we would hit a rock. Soon, we had a pile of rocks. They just kept coming. It was entertaining how many we were coming across. The neighborhood kids joined in on pulling out rocks. Brynlee and her friends spent quite a while washing some of the rocks to see what they looked like under all the dirt. 

We used some of the rocks to create a border for a flower garden in the front yard. We have also pulled out a bush, ground cover, and more ground cover. We have laid sod in the front where we ripped out the ground cover. It's slowly coming along. 

I've put more time into gardening these last few months than I have in years. I'm surprised we've put so much time into it. It's been a learning experience that I'm actually enjoying. I don't love the bugs, but there is something about putting this yard together that feels good. It feels good to clean up a space and help this yard look better.