Let's Build Our Own Garden!

"So... you know what I want to do this weekend? Build a garden!" Yes, that's what she said to me while I was sitting at the counter drinking coffee on one of the first Saturday mornings of the pandemic. Before we keep going, you should know that Diana is the "big ideas" person in our relationship. I'm the executioner of those ideas. Executor? Ex... something. To be fair, I try to shut down most of her ideas early, so I guess that does make me the executioner most of the time. While she's busy vision-boarding in her head, I'm running through the logistics of how long this fun little weekend project will take "us" to complete.

Since there were no sports to run off to, no birthday parties, no social events of any kind, I probably said yes to this one a little too quickly...

Henry and his tree root!

We cut down the years of scrub brush that grown up in the vacant spot at the edge of the property. We dug up stumps and tree roots (like the one Henry is holding in the photo). We dug holes and put up fencing to keep the myriad of critters at bay. We used the old wrought iron fencing that Uncle Harry (more on the old man later) rescued from a McDonalds patio renovation decades earlier. We dug holes and put in posts.

We did all of this for this lovely little 10x20 spot of land. Just enough room for Diana to plant a few dahlias with minimal weeding and maintenance. The perfect little garden.

But as is the case with most of Diana's ideas... this little one started to grow bigger. So after only a couple of months, we had to call in the heavy equipment.

The garden was about to take on a life, and personality, of its own.