Finally spring is here! It has been a long, hard and cold winter. Still, it doesn’t want to let go of it’s hold easily as rivers flood from too much melting snow and rain and landslides threaten citizens. Thankfully it’s not happening here, where I live, but my thoughts are with these people.
The greatest thing about spring, for me, it’s that I can finally go back to my garden. I missed it so much! Sounds stupid, but I really love spending time outside tending to my lawn, flower beds and vegetable patches. My nails get full of dirt and my knees get muddy but I can’t be bothered with that.
I actually enjoy raking my lawn.
My garden is not the pretty, orderly French garden type, with perfect hedges and rows. It’s more of a controlled chaos. I like things natural. I see my garden as a living space, a welcoming home for the living. Any kind of living creature. I select plants that will attract and feed birds, butterflies and bees. I can even tolerate slugs or bunnies in the lettuce. I allow stalks to dry in the autumn without removing them for I know that finches and chickadees will come and feed on the seeds. That will take them through winter. I keep the winter grasses up until late in the spring because I know robins, sparrows and blackbirds use them to build their nests. So I only cut them when nesting season is done.
See these? That’s what birds use for their nests, it’s all over my yard at the moment 🙂
I guess you could say the garden looks horrible on most months of the year, but it has a greater purpose than aesthetics. It looks great in June, July and August though, when everything is in full bloom, and all the creatures have enough to feed all around. All the photos posted today are iPhone photos edited mostly with the new updated Mextures app, I’ll only take out the “big” one when there’s actually some color in the garden.
On another note, I have completed my 100 Days of Happy challenge!!! I’m tempted to go ahead and continue for a second run, but the sunny days are here and although I’ll have many sources of happiness available, I might lack the time to post.
This post is part of a blog circle, please visit Karrie’s blog and leave some love along the way…
I love your perspective of your garden it makes me want to get out there and start planting. I think it’s these little joys that make the changing of the seasons so precious. And congratulations on completing your hundred day happy challenge!!
Thank you Jessica!
I love your garden Isabelle – its just like our garden! We always leave all the cutting back until spring, when all the insects have overwintered and the birds have taken what they need. We have nettles in amongst the flowers – the flowers on them are quite pretty and the bees love them. I love sitting out in summer and being surrounded by a loud hum of lots of busy insects. We are going to experiment with growing some veggies in amongst the flowers this year, instead of in a separate plot.
Your happy challenge photos are just beautiful – you are brilliant to have managed that, I just cant even start! What a fantastic record – are you tempted to keep it up?
Thank you Jill! Yes, I was tempted to keep the Happy challenge going, I might just post some more happy every now and then 🙂