down the gardening path...

I love spending my free time outdoors, playing in my flower beds on warm, sunny days. This is how I relieve stress after spending all day—sometimes 12 hours—at my computer. When I'm outdoors, I don't have to worry about deadlines, preparing files for printing, or making sure every detail is perfect—my flowers are happy just as they are!

Our gardening shed before it was painted

We have almost two acres but half of it contains trees. It has been a challenge through the years, determining what works best in our shady yard and that's why we never planted a vegetable garden. After removing numerous trees in the back that were damaged, we had a gardening shed built last fall in anticipation of a future vegetable garden. And a few weeks ago, our raised vegetable beds went in! While other mothers were getting flowers and jewelry for mother's day, I received a truck load of dirt, vegetable plants and flowers for my beds and I couldn't have been happier!

Here are two inspirational photos (shown below) I found on Pinterest—aren't they beautiful! My shed and garden will never look like these but they did help me determine what I wanted.

I spent the long weekend, planting flowers around my shed. Of course, I still need more plants for the shed, grass needs to be planted and stone pathways put in but slowly, everything is coming together.

I only put in two vegetable beds but if they do well this summer, more will be added next year. And if the bunnies and deer don't leave them alone, a picket fence will follow! 

Both my parents were avid gardeners—my mother had the most beautiful flower beds and my father's vegetable garden was the envy of neighbor and friends. So I'm hoping I inherited their genes!

More photos to come once everything is completed. Happy planting!