beautiful day

i am no longer worried we are going to get washed away.  the seven days of non stop rain (aka the mini monsoon) has finally ceased and today we are going to be doing yard work. val and kev came over this afternoon with some plants that they sectioned off from their garden so that we can transplant them into ours. i am sure that none of the terminology in that sentence is proper garden jargon... to be honest, i know nothing about gardening. as i have said in previous entries, our backyard has a massive garden that i am incredibly intimidated by. thankfully, val and kev have offered to help. val promises me that the plants she brought over are low maintenance and that i will have a full, flourishing garden eventually. i am still worried. not because i don't think val knows what she is talking about but because i don't exactly have the best track record with plants. i have successfully murdered 2 of my 3 hours plants... like i have said before, i may have a black thumb.

i am hoping that i will do better with outside plants that i have with inside plants...

i think we did fairly well today. before val and kev came over jesse weed whacked and mowed the lawn, front and back. he mowed and fertilized the lawn last week right before all of the rain and between the fertilizer and the constant rain the grass grew so quickly. while jesse did that, i started collecting the various lawn gnomes / ornaments the previous owner left for us in order to throw them in the garbage. they were their own type of tacky.

emi checking out the weed wacker

running away

the tacky lawn gnomes...

around two o'clock val and kev arrived and it was absolutely beautiful out, amazing gardening weather. the sun was so warm after a week of hiding but there was still a consistent cool breeze - perfect relief from the heat. jesse and kev turned the mini flower bed against the garage into a little vegetable garden. i am giving the majority of the responsibility of the vegetable garden to jesse since i believe that is our best hope at fresh, home grown veggies.

our new vegetable garden along the garage

our tomato plants - hopefully we get some big, juicey ones.

 so, kev and jesse worked on creating the new vegetable garden while val and i worked on planting the various shoots that she brought from her garden into ours. we have a giant island-type flower bed in the middle of our backyard that i am hoping to completely fill with various plants and flowers. val and i transferred all the tulip bulbs that were lining the garage into the central bed as well as the lily of the valley and day lilies. we also planted some poppies and rhubarb along the back fence and peonies next to the house. i am especially excited about the peonies that are all the way from carnduff, from val's mom's garden years ago.

fingers crossed that soon there will be virtually no bark showing

val planting a poppy plant and attempting to get emi to leave her alone

tulip's we moved

peonies

 i don't know who had more fun, us or emi. we knew that emi had a love for digging up dirt but we had no idea she would have had so much fun running around underfoot while we did our thing in the garden. she definitely had the zoomies this afternoon, running in circles around the yard, stealing plants before they can be put in the ground, attempting to entice you into playing tug-a-war with her instead of digging holes and planting plants. i am starting to get worried though since she seems to love eating flowers...

going in for the kill

enjoying tulip

kisses!!

what a cute little girl

so, hopefully we will be able to keep these plants alive. i really, really hope so because i want a beautiful, full garden so badly. we have such an amazing backyard it would really be a shame not to take advantage of it. so, a huge thank you to val and kev for attempting to show us how to garden this afternoon! fingers crossed everything lives against all odds aka my black thumb and our little monster, emi, and her new found love for flowers.