With a little (LOTS of) help from my friends!

Since my husband died last December, my zest for gardening has waned. I did do the front yard, but in the process totally neglected the back yard. It became so weedy that I hated to even go back there. It was almost beyond hope, and I needed to focus on my week off to get it done. With lots of help from my friends, a date was set for a garden work party.

Before the party, I spent a full day clearing out the junk from my husband’s shed.  I borrowed a trailer from friends to put stuff into… and then made a dump run.

I did find some satisfaction with the progress I made, but it will be a while before it is exactly the way I want it.

Before and after:

I got a huge chuckle out of some of the stuff my husband set aside for “just in case”.  There was a neatly rolled piece of window screen material, about 10 inches long by 15 inches wide, neatly rolled up, and secured with green painters tape…  There was also a neatly folded piece of plastic…wait until you see the labels Needless to say those two items made my day, and brought back some fond memories of my man.

Now more on the garden part of this post.

I really hate to show you the before pictures, but you need to see them to appreciate how much we accomplished in such a short time… The majority of the work (really, the foundation of weeding and redoing the pathway) took us 4 hours, including lunch! The rest I have worked on over two days (resetting the cement slabs under the pergola, planting the uprooted strawberries, and finishing off the blue chip gravel and putting in bark mulch).  Not bad eh! 

Truly I really could not have done it without my friends!

Before:

After:

 

The garden path before the garden work party.

During the party (we had 8 people show up, which effectively filled the yard with activity!

 

The garden path after the work party!

 

There is still work to do, but it is at the point that it is a pleasure to be in my back yard again.

I know that I can’t thank my friends enough for lending a hand and giving me the impetus to get going on an overwhelming prospect! I’m starting to love my back yard again!