Mark and I worked our butts off last week digging out an herb garden in the front lawn. We only had hand spades and it took four days. To be fair, Mark did most of the work, but I put in a lot of sweat and muscle too. The goal was to have it completed by the time our friends came over on Saturday to see the fireworks.
Mark started by digging the circle parameter and then he began the process of removing the grass. While he worked on that I carried stones from the lower back deck to a shade garden I made on the side of the house (I forgot to take a picture of the shade garden...next time).
I saved the sturdy mulch bags from the mulch I put in the shade garden so we could fill them with the grass and top layer that Mark was removing from the herb bed.
We waited to work until later in the evenings when the temperature dropped a bit. It is just too hot to be out working otherwise . That gave us several hours every night until we lost the light. After four evenings we finally had a grass free area!
You can tell from that smile he is glad to be done with the digging!
Amazingly the plants that Gloria gave me were still thriving after four days in a bucket. You gotta love the resilience of herbs!
The next evening I planted the bee balm, lemon balm and placed the butterfly house in the center. We plan to pick up another herb at the farmers market on Wednesday.
We felt like we were at the finish line at this point but still had to haul rocks from the lower deck behind the house up to the front lawn to create the border of the garden.
The final step was adding the mulch and TA-DA! We have an herb garden, and just in time for our guests the following night.
Saturday I decided to get a little patriotic for the party. I bought a big American flag to put on the light post in front of the house.
And hung some flag inspired pennant banners on the back deck railing.
A few patriotic pinwheels in the box planters with the new lantana flowers, and we were ready to celebrate!
We had a pretty big crowd and the fireworks show was awesome! I kinda wish I had taken pictures of everyone, but I was in the moment and just didn't think of it. I do however have pictures of the beautiful flower arrangement our friend Rcena made and gave to us. She is a florist at Flowerama in Springfield and super talented! Just look at this gorgeous arrangement! (and ignore the toaster and coffee maker. It was the most well lit area to take photos).
The ceramic pot looks like paper mache'.
I love the way she weaved the grass strands!
The eucalyptus is a nice touch. One of my favorite plants. I just love this arrangement so much!
I can hardly believe that tomorrow is the first day of July! Time sure does fly when you're having flowers, fireworks, friends and fun!
~ Love & Light ~
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