And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud

was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

~Anais Nin

Happy Monday to all my beautiful blossoming friends. I cherish you all so much.

Spring is officially here, let the Ice Cream Truck arrive!

So I’ve added a new category to this blog called Garden Adventures. I wanted to name it “Watch My Garden Grow” but to many words.

Here’s a little history…Brian and I bought this beautiful, 100 yr. old, English Tudor home two years ago. We were in the thick of wedding season, so we focused on getting moved in. Last year summer came and went with weddings, and we still didn’t do any gardening except my pots on the back deck. But this year is different!

When Pascaline was 9 months old, we backed packed all through England. Brian and I fell in love with English cottage gardens. The landscaping of our house in the backyard is AMAZING! Two levels with a vintage swing set, purple lilacs, hot pink azaleas, Rhodie’s, lime green ferns, cherry trees, an old apple tree, you name it. But the front yard…well this is the front yard and the front side yard. Totally boring!

The Rhodie and Camellia in front almost cover up the whole front of the house. And check out the nasty shrubs in the bottom right corner. Got to go!

The side yard feels like a putting green! The landscapers even mow it with a lawn mower called a “California Mower” which is what they use on golf courses. To perfect and put together for our taste.

So a couple weeks ago, we decided to go at it. Just have fun. Turn the whole side yard into a English type cottage garden. But make it interesting.

Brian said the design almost feels like the feminine meeting the masculine. Thankfully, our neighbors are excited and totally anticipating what’s to come.

Instead of having huge flower/vegetable beds, we thought it’d be fun to leave grass walking paths with a circle at the top. The kids are loving it! They’ve been helping a lot!

We’re having a blast! It feels so good to get out here after work and just plant, dig, shovel compost, until the sun goes down.

For Mother’s Day we got up early and started in the garden at 9am and worked out there until 8pm. Our neighbors kept commenting on how ambitious we are. Little do they know…

The kids and I planted sweat peas, strawberries, corn, artichoke, lettuce, and we’re still thinking about the whole pumpkin idea. Brian and I love Peonies, David Austin roses, Lupine, Holly Hocks, Delphinium, Larkspur and tons of Lavender. We even found a white rose called Pascali and a red Peony called Blaze! The kids are so excited!

The best adventure so far has been Pascaline running up to us and saying she stuck four worms down her gardening glove. She thought she was pretty smart until we told her she had to get them out to keep gardening. Oh boy! That was a pickle of a situation. For TWO HOURS she sat and tried to get the worms out of the fingers in her glove without squishing the worms at the same time. Hilarious! Brian and I tried really hard to not laugh. At the end, she said “Well that’s the last time I ever do something like that again mom. Getting those worms out was worse than a time out in my room all day!”

More Garden Adventure to come!