Honest Work

This is one of my current projects ( after the flower gardens, the veggie gardens, house painting and graduation party ). These stone steps are one of the best discoveries I have made about this property/house. I didn't know they were there until last summer. The edge of the creek had been fenced in by the previous mistress of the house. The trees and invasive honeysuckle bush had taken over the entire bank. Last summer, I knew I wanted to change all of it.

There is a nice little walking bridge that the old timer's in the neighborhood used frequently before the ex-mistress fenced off the property right up to the bridge. I recently found out that the neighbors still talk about it. Imagine that. It has been 7, maybe 8 years and it is still a topic of conversation at some of the neighborhood gatherings. Soon, it will all be changed for the better I hope.

The trees are slowly getting removed. It is hard work digging up a honeysuckle bush and chopping up a HUGE tree that has overgrown the rock wall and is leaning over. There is a wild rose? that used to climb an arbor that I found the remains of while cleaning everything away. It is small and diseased looking but it might just come back so I left it alone for now. As soon as I get the trees and bushes out, I am planting native fauna to naturalize the area. I've started some very small persimmon saplings and a couple of oaks that should do well here. Also, I bought some redwood that is supposed to be beautiful in the winter. Lots of other flowers and bushes to go in as well. A few weeks from now and this will be a changed view. In ten or twenty years, the oaks will have some size to them and it will really be different. I'm looking forward to retiring here under the old oak trees.

Now that I have rambled on incessantly about my future garden, the description leaves nothing to the imagination. Except the small cordwood shed I want to build with a sod roof... my own little hobbit house...