The Early June Garden
Sun, June 3, 2012 at 01:46PM 
I like to share a peek in the garden from time to time. Now if I could just get the motivation to work on the pruning or those neglected corners... all the work of years past continues to pay dividends in blooms. We planted the garden in 2005 when we moved to a new house. The ground around our N. Texas home is pure clay. Hard, hard work. We paid some guys to dig the holes to plant 15 trees. Lots of soil amendments and smelly organic concoctions.
I used gridded graphing paper to sketch the garden dimensions and researched plant characteristics. Went to nurseries to see what plants cost and looked like. Over-analyzed what to buy and where to put it. Groups of 5? Checkerboard pattern? What size to buy?
We got Kimba, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, in 2006. She's now 105 pounds and we figure she was a puppy for about a week. Then she turned into a shark. She pulled herself over baby gates. She pulled the leash thingamajingie out of the ground. In the small bits of time - moments - she was in the garden each day, she dug and destroyed. She scraped a full 5' of the Bald Cypress trunk completely off. It was a young tree and we didn't think it would make it. We wrapped it in burlap and it still grows strong. But the point is that after all of that planning about 30% of the garden had to be re-planted!
The idea was flowering perennials with year-round interest and bright fall foliage. Sadly, if I prune more than an hour or so at a time, my wrists and thumbs are miserable for days. And the heat does not inspire motivation. So I let the garden stumble along hoping that it will continue to thrive with random focus and care. Each year, the entire family works for a full week in the fall and summer to get the garden back to the proper condition. Pruning, digging up weeds, etc. Hard work. It takes lots of popsicle breaks to get it done.
Reader Comments (5)
You've inspired me to go and look for winter beauty in my garden Tammy - I'll post later today.
Sounds like a Ridgeback with too much free time on her hands. lol. If our Rott was left outside for longer than to just go pee she would think she was being abused. All our dogs no matter how large were always house dogs and an integral part of the family. Perhaps you leave her to her own devices too much?? So happy for you that you are able to put your garden together again. Hugs! deb
{Tammy}: Deb, Goodness, definitely not left to her own devices! Kimba is an indoor dog and one of the family. The damage she inflicted was back in her first year, in periods of 5-10 minutes on her own in the yard. She is now six. Something magical happened a week after she turned two and she has been a marvelous dog ever since. She is amazingly tolerant and abundantly loving.
Well, it looks like the garden gets just enough attention - your flowers are FAB. Beautiful.
My usually sweet doggie, Waffles, pulled out and chewed $90 worth of creeping phlox from my beds. LMK, if you find a safe solution to doggies chewing plants!
Tammy, what a beautiful garden you have! I would love one too for purely selfish reasons...I wish I enjoyed outdoor/lawn care but I just don't. But I love to see what others do and really admire their patience and product!