Planting Flowers and More

Chad took off work on Saturday to pick up an order of bees which only took about an hour, so we had most of the day together. We took advantage of that by working in the yard. Noel even joined us after she got home from work. 

Since Chad is starting his bee journey, he wanted to plant a pollinator garden. He cleared the back corner of the front yard that we tried to make a salsa garden last year and failed. It has been cleared nicely, now. He planted a few varieties of flowers, some bulbs, and some wildflower seeds. They are all known to attract bees and should help with his goal of being able to harvest honey next year. 

Noel has been wanting to make a small flower garden under her bedroom window for a while, and this was her chance to do it. She even used her own money to buy the flowers and a decorative fence. She spent quite a bit of time clearing the weeds and grass from the area she wanted to plant as well as around it to try to keep the weeds out for as long as possible. The result was so impressive that I may consider doing something similar under all of the bedroom windows in the future. Of course, we would have to look for low or partial sun flowers for the windows on the north side of the house. 

I worked on the same flower and garden beds that I have been working on for many years including the one I created last year. I cleared weeds and planted flowers and blueberries. I will plant vegetables this weekend. My plan is to use the flower bed in front of the porch as a small three sisters garden with corn, beans, and cucumbers (hoping that is close enough to squash). One of my garden beds will be another attempt at a salsa garden with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro. The other one will have Swiss chard, carrots, and one more plant that has yet to be decided. We will also be clearing room by the cherry tree for pumpkins. 

We still have a long way to go to reach my dream of a drought resistant yard without grass. My grass is all dead, and we are trying to mitigate the weeds as best we can until we can fill the front yard in with plants and steppingstones. In the meantime, we will be cleaning up the backyard that has yet to be worked on and decide on an agreed vision for that. I am hoping to have a yard that is sustainable and enjoyable for everyone.