this is why the house is a mess

all we've been doing is gardening. this will probably end up being multiple posts on the same subject, as i realize i'm missing photos of a few things, but i'm not going to go out in the rain to capture them. that is for another day. let's start this thing, right?

BEFORE:

DURING:



(200+ leftover bricks--that's part of the next post):

scary hole to nowhere:


another shot of progress:





AFTER:

the butterfly garden

(plants in this garden include a black knight butterfly bush, red penstemons, dragonflowers, keys of heaven, monarda, and asters)


BEFORE:





DURING:

another angle:



AFTER:

the big shade garden


and

granted, this doesn't look very impressive. yet. about 1/3 of the plants were shipped bare root, so there's no foliage at all. they don't show up in the photos. total, there are roughly 80 plants in this garden.

(plants include astilbes, bleeding hearts, toad lilies, columbines, primroses, and cyclamens--i know the cyclamens will sprout only if i'm lucky, and only for the season. however, they came with the package, so why not try?)


BEFORE:

(it's hard work operating the camera. much more intense than digging up pavers and gravel and sand. i barely made this shot before i passed out from fatigue.)

DURING:





AFTER:

the vegetable garden (with some stray perennials)

and

and

this explains why the house is covered in a fine layer of cat hair, the cockatiel is lonely, and none of the grading is done.