Heather

It all started with some heather.


This spindly purple plant that just sat on a makeshift end-cap in the garden section of Lowes. We had gone there for some hanging plants for the front porch- but the heather came home with us too. I know nothing about gardening, or flowers and I have successfully killed every green thing that I have brought into my house, but for some reason I wanted that heather to come home with me. We had some planters in the garage that were left by the previous owners, still occupied by dead and brittle plants and I envisioned sitting on the front porch with Lilly and replanting that Heather, recycling what might have been trash, pushing my hands into the dirt and feeling it ooze between my fingers. Maybe taking a break from intellectualizing, get back to some basics. But a question kept lingering in my mind- is this me? Am I person who gardens? I guess the answer is yep.


Anyone who knows me knows that when I set my mind to something I do it; some people call this trait stubborn- I like to call it persistence- I mean I am the person who taught herself to knit from a book. And I never do anything half-way, so I also bought a little package of gardening tools-


which matching pink Dora ones of course so that I could appease my small helper. Add an appropriate sized watering can for us each and we were on our way. First of course, Lilly had to skip around the yard-


hopefully wearing herself out for a nap. And then we had to play with the plotting soil for a while before we actually used it to plant anything. It was messy, but fun.


We didn’t forget the hanging plants- I think they looked great on the front porch (yes I said looked, here’s a hint- don’t get attached to them).



And that heather-which I thought I would put on the porch on either side of the steps to the house actually went down into the yard where it would get a bit more sun.


And then it was time to give them a little drink of water-, which included Lilly watering some dandelions, over and over again.


She really enjoyed the watering of the dandelions, which gave us a small flood near the porch. But hey we had puddles without the rain, so I call it a win!


The heather, which I though would be thorny, is actually very soft and tough it seems, especially with the way my assistant handled the potting.

I am convinced now, of course that I need to tackle the flower beds in the front yard which haven’t been touched in, I would guess, years. But the front yard is pretty shady- so we will have to pick something that can grow without a lot of direct sunlight. I have also decided to dry a raised bed garden in the backyard, maybe grow some veggies and the next project which is going to be the back deck with some container gardening. I don’t know I guess I am still trying to figure out what I want to do to fill up my time this summer- you know besides the two year old.