Abandoned but not Forgot

Overgrown.

Sitting silent.

Something pretty still lingers.

The path I could extend into the old shade garden.

Below: Remnants of the once pretty shade garden. Still had it's shape, it just needed to have a little time spent clipping and such.. All gone now

I'm blessed/cursed with a large yard. When I first started gardening (over 20 years ago), I had a shade garden on one side of the yard and a somewhat sunny garden on the other side. The shade garden had a huge Rhododendron and hostas and lots of pretty native plants I moved from my woods. It was very pretty, but eventually it was left on it's own to survive, which it did quite well. Unfortunately, last year we had to have our drain field redug, and in the process my shade garden was demolished. I came home from work with not a stick standing and tons of red clay exposed , giving me heart palpatations.  I simply didn't have the energy to do anything and there it's sat for almost a year. Weeds growing and sapplings, a pretty, but running amok, groundcover. So overwhelming. I still don't know what to do. They didn't smooth the soil so it's uneven ground with large rocks here and there. I'm thinking this fall we'll just put all the leaves over there, hoping to keep the weeds at bay and maybe during the winter I'll have some doable ideas.  One thing bouncing around in my mind is a fire pit. I could continue the gravel over there and create a circular sitting area with a fire pit in the middle. I could get my young and strong men to flatten out the area and in the Spring when we get another load of gravel for the garden, and  apply some there too.  What do you think?

The Lake

That top photo was one of the prettiest pictures I ever took. I love everything about it. But it hurts my heart to see what's become of that beautiful lake. I know it will be back one day, but now it is a sea of green grass. It looks very much like a low land swamp. I guess even the way it is now has it's own beauty. They drained the lake so people could fix whatever they needed to fix around their edge, but when they started to fill it back up they realized there was a problem and had to stop. Now it's just sitting there. I go over that bridge 3 times a week at least and I've not seen anything being done. I hope they start mending whatever needs to be mended soon!

This lake is on the way to my father's house. It's a beautiful drive, even though it's dead in the center of "town". But it is so beautifully planted for all seasons. It's where I go out on the golf cart and enjoy the Cherry trees in Spring, and smell an unknown vine in fall that is sweet as honey. Get movin' Peachtree City!!!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've got a great weekend planned!

Summer Garden

 June

July

July is here! I'm having a love/hate relationship with my garden right now. The Mondardo bloomed beautifully, and for a very long time. Once it's blooms were spent I chopped it all back, which left just a bunch of sticks. It had covered a rather large area, so now there is a pretty big bald spot. I stuck an impatience in a pot there, but I miss the impact of all that Monardo!

I have loved the gravel. I had one bad run of lots of rain and the grass came up heavy. I finally sprayed with Round Up and have been able to stay on top of it. I am on a heavily shaded lot, and I am surprised at how many sticks and leaves fall every! single! day! You don't realize it unless you have to go out and pick them all up, (oh my aching back!).

I really hate the urn planting (the tall one in the garden). The flowers are just too small, and they're mostly white. I had a caladium in there too, but it was not growing so I removed it and put it in a pot. I also have Bacopa in it, and it's not doing much either. I wanted to plant Dichondra, like I had last year, but I got such a late start this year and I missed out. Darn! This will be all for the garden this year. I didn't plant many annuals and the ones I did plant didn't do anything.  Now I'm already looking forward to fall and tulip planting for next Spring! I can't wait to see the pretty blooms surrounded by the pea gravel instead of red mud! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and looking at this photo heavy post! I hope you've had a great Thursday.