Saturday, April 7, 2012

G is for... Garden

How's my mental health today?

It is more stable now than it was two weeks ago although yesterday evening was a bit of a challenge. I'm not sure why but I had a down day. I was struggling to decide what my G post was going to be, and went through several ideas that didn't grab me.

As I was looking through the image files on my computer I found my topic. Gardens. Specifically our garden in 2008. Heidi's flowers added colour to our property and our vegetable garden delivered a bountiful harvest.

I asked my daughter Lora, who's now in South Africa, to take lots of pictures of our garden and flower beds. So she did.

















I hollowed out the stump of a maple tree so Heidi could use it as a planter.



Red Currants



Lora took great pride in photographing the insects too; in this case potato bugs.




Poppies grew randomly in the garden.






There was much more. In the six and a half years of living there we enjoyed the fruits of our four apple trees, strawberries, carrots, zuchini, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, yellow and green beans, cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts, asparagus, corn, kohlrabi, spinach, lettuce, peas, pumpkins, canteloupe, watermelons, raspberries, and rhubarb.

We sold the house because it had become too much for us to manage. We miss sitting in the back yard, enjoying the fresh fruit and vegetables, the beauty of the flowers, and watching the squirrels race along the fence top and jumping through the trees.

We don't miss the work.


The best place to seek God is in a garden.
You can dig for him there.
~~ George Bernard Shaw





10 comments:

  1. What an amazing garden and beautiful pictures. They are certainly a lot of work. Luckily mine is very much smaller than yours was but it can still run away and overgrow if I leave it unattended for a week or so!

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  2. Beautiful pictures. My parents always had a garden. Nothing like fresh grown food. Thanks for posting.

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  3. A beautiful garden for someone else to enjoy now. Do you still have some outside space to enjoy now you've moved?

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  4. Mt wife does container gardening on our balcony - flowers, tomatoes, kale and herbs. It's not a lot of work and is enjoyable for her.

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  5. Lovely garden - I miss mine too, living in Tenerife with only a terrace bed to tend.

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  6. Beautiful post, Horst! I find that peace grows in a garden in abundance! Anybody looking at all your beautiful pictures would have to feel better! I love the thought of sitting in your garden, surveying it all. Beautiful, as is the quote at the end. Great post!

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  7. Wonderful pictures! I really like that idea of hollowing out a tree stump to create a planter--so creative and beautiful! Thanks for that idea 8-)

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  8. Beautiful pictures! Such color! Thanks for sharing!

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  9. Lovely pictures and a beautiful garden. We miss the yard we had in North Carolina especially now we live in an apartment.

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  10. Gorgeous garden. Gosh I wish I liked to do that kind of thing. I'm so not into getting dirty. LOL
    I'll steal that tomato plant tho.
    Man, nothing better than fresh grown tomatoes on fresh bread.
    *sigh*

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