The Garden in June

We ended June with an open garden event where garden club members and friends came to visit our gardens. About 16 people came and many commented on some of the unusual plants that we have (a huge thistle, a banana tree, a teasel plant, a bitter orange thorn tree, etc). We have many pictures that we need to take but here is another slide show with a few of them. Look for the little flower beds made within the rocks. One of the fenced gardens is the 'Corner' garden that we created earlier this year. The fenced raised bed is where we plant one type of each dahlia that we have. The tall red flowers are bee balm. There are a few lilies as well. The tall yellow flowers are false sunflowers. It was fun to walk around with people and try to identify the plants that didn't have markers (the markers don't last long).  We gave away seeds from our red Columbine which finished flowering a few weeks ago.  We are going to plant the seeds and see if we can get some more later this summer.

We are planning on a trip tomorrow (July 2nd) to an outlet mall in Massachusetts with the Dave and Joann Postma (and Jo's mom). It has over 170 stores - we should be busy. Too bad we have a very small, limited budget but it will be fun to look anyway.

What we have been up to - May 2010

We have a busy summer ahead of us (and have had a busy spring). Cliff and I decided to add two new gardens. Both are in areas that are difficult to mow. Cliff rented a tiller and broke up the sod for both area in early May - we are still working on getting them cleaned out even though we have planted in them already. We are trying to clear all the vines and other weeds off of the rock wall near the road.

The new garden located on the other side of the driveway from our house is called the slope garden (you will see from the pictures why we call it that). Our goal is to get it all cleared out and put ground cover or plants that spread there so hopefully they will help in battling the weeds. Cliff and I enjoy doing this. Even when I was working full time, being in the yard planting or weeding is therapy for me. We have the challenge of keeping the deer out of the gardens. Ruby does a pretty good job, but they come in when we are all sleeping.

The other new garden is in the yard where the house sits and we call it the corner garden (it is opposite corners from the slope garden). We have found if we name them we both refer to that name instead of just pointing. We have everything in the ground except for a cone flower and a couple of small hosta's that I am going to put into a trough. I have had lots of fun doing several hanging baskets this summer and Cliff has done several pots that look really nice.

On Memorial Day we had several families over for a cook-out. Cliff did a great job grilling and then to top the day off we did Beatles Rock Band together. It is always lots of fun.

On May 27th Cliff and I drove to Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Cliff reports to a gal that was orginally with Wyeth so he wanted to go meet the people he will be working with. It was a quick trip we left early on the 27th and got there early afternoon. I stayed in the hotel room and vegged and read. When Cliff got through we went to a huge mall (King of Prussia - used to be the largest mall in U.S.). We walked for some time and did not even begin to see it all. Cliff had meetings Friday morning and then we headed for home. Our idea was that we would drive so far and then spend the night somewhere but as we got closer to home, we just decided to go all the way home so we could sleep in our own bed. Cliff and I celebrated 29 years of marriage on the 23rd of May. It is hard to believe and I think we still like each other :-) We are going to post some of the pictures I have taken of the gardens hope you enjoy.

Welcome to our Blog

The title of our blog is The grass withers, the flower fades... It seems to best express where we are at in our life.

This is taken from Isaiah 40:8 - here is the whole verse:

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

We hope to share glimpes into our life, our hobbies, our work, our church, our family, and our friends. May God touch you like he has touched us!

The picture is from the summer of 2009. It is Mountain Laurel and is right in the field next to our house. We first got excited about this shrub when we saw it at a friend's house in Virginia. Lo and behold, it is growing in the woods all around us.