Taming the Jungle

I have been working so very hard. Physically hard, not mentally hard - I've been taking a much-needed break from that. My fingers are stained earth colored and my nails are a wreck... my body is very tired and sore, but happy too, getting strong and in shape again after too long. What have I been doing? Working in my Magic Garden, of course. For the longest time I'd only been waiting... waiting to see what secrets my new garden would reveal - and secrets and wonders galore were discovered: a magnolia tree, a lilac, a fence-long of wisteria, rhododendrons in pink and fuchsia and yellow and salmon, camellias in magenta and white, fruit trees, blue bells, tulips, poppies, peonies, day lillies, roses, roses and more roses... and I forget what else. All these things came and went... and I thought about pulling weeds, but the weeds were not weeds I knew, and I was afraid they might actually be something wondrous too. So, I left them for the longest time, waiting... waiting... waiting... watching my garden turn into this Wild Place, a Jungle, really. Vines winding around shrubs, smothering them, winding tighter and tighter... weeds crowding out who knows what might be under there... things looking more and more intimidating... And then I gave up the hope of something truly amazing popping up from the midst of that mess, and went to work. I've been working there for weeks now, and wow... I've only got more and more work to do it turns out. But I feel like I've made progress - my jungle is getting tamed, things are getting under control. Sort of, because I know if I turn my back, the weeds will grow 8 inches over night - I know this from experience - that is one of the magical things about my yard - things grow. It's fabulous, really.

Before shots - taken a couple of weeks ago, weeds, weeds and more weeds. You have to see these, otherwise the next shots won't look like much!





And here are the after shots, taken today. That bare dark brown patch - used to be a bed of weeds - I'll be getting a bag of grass seed tomorrow for that area - I moved the rock wall and made it more... intuitive - before, you would get to that part of the garden and wonder... where am I supposed to go now? Where am I supposed to look? It confused ME anyway.