Bikurgurl, Food, Gardening, InstagramImages, The-Year-Of-Quality

Golly! I’ve been Gardening and Living IRL!

Warning! Garden Love follows 🙂

The weather in the Pacific Northwest is uncommonly warm. No hot! I’ve been busy planting seeds, amending garden beds, staking flowers, mulching, pulling weeds…

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Image Credit Bikurgurl, Instagram Images

And I love it!

My husband and I were surprised when we moved to the Pacific Northwest and yards are not measured in acres (or fractions of square acres) but square feet. Moving from the Midwest, USA, where we lived on almost an acre, it was a huge change. Yikes! How would I garden? Turns out … even better.

Once we moved into our current home, I had big plans. Flowers, trees, shrubs, vegetables…I want to plant it all! I want to draw in birds and beneficial insects with native plantings and some fun flowers and plants for my family. It’s a slow process, but we’ve lived in this home for nearly 4 years and the progress is dramatic.

Bikurgurl 2016, Changing Landscape of front yard

I don’t have a great ‘before’ image easily at hand, but the grass in the image on the left extended to every concrete surface. Last summer I dug up the perimeter of the front yard and filled it with plants. Lots of native and fun plants traded or given to me at the Green Elephants I’ve attended. Many of my plantings have been so prolific that I’m able to divide and offer mine for trade as well!

All of my selections have a story. Most of my selections come from frugality. I can’t take credit for the lovely Rhododendrons, as they were part of the mature landscape, but the varieties in color, texture, and form — those are my choices!

I could wax poetic about the hopefulness a seed holds, the excitement of seeing seedlings grow into flowers, the love and patience it takes to stake strong, yet tender, young flowers – but sometimes the images are better than words. Enter Year 3 of my Echinacea, or Purple-Headed Coneflower:

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Image Credit Bikurgurl, Instagram Images
Bikurgurl 2016, Echinachea 3 feet tall!
Bikurgurl 2016, Ladybug Instagram Image
Bikurgurl 2016, Purple Headed ConeflowerIn Bloom
Bikurgurl, Broken Bloom from not staking 😦
Bikurgurl, Staked Bloom {hopefully, it won’t break!}
Bikurgurl, emerging bloom

Or how about those Green Elephant gifts from the weekend:

Bikurgurl, view from my garage of some of the Green Elephant finds mixed with my starts to plant
Bikurgurl 2016, Green Elephant finds and unwanted gives I took to there
Bikurgurl 2016, Green Elephant gives moved to garage
Bikurgurl, Green Elephant gives in bucket for easy transport
Bikurgurl, beautiful hand-written label from generous give of a Green Elephant goer
Bikurgurl, some tiny new plants received at the Green Elephant lining my drive

Or about this former flower bed or beautiful Black-Eyed Susans, beginning to die in the center because they had never been divided, now thriving all over my yard {and in the yards of some friends and Green Elephant Goers} to make way for my veggies to come:

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I’m planting aromatic plants around it, but need to amend the soil and enlarge the area. I am still transplanting my *test* bed on the right prior to plunking in my luscious vegetables – like spaghetti squash, pumpkin, garden herbs, and sunflowers!

I had to get all Kon-Marie on my gardening horde – of which I hope to complete by mid-week:

And my seedlings:

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Image Credit Bikurgurl

Intermingled with teaching, birthdays, travel, homeschooling, field trips, theatre, dogs, home, and life – I must wax poetic another day! The garden calls, the temperatures will be high, and I have work that must be done!

How are you loving life?

@Bikurgurl_watermark

22 thoughts on “Golly! I’ve been Gardening and Living IRL!”

      5. Yes! I think the moment you begin to make things right for yourself with a right understanding, you unknowingly begin to do the same for people around you. After all, that is our immediate world right? :).

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Absolutely right! :). Please keep up the good work. I, sitting far away from you can sense the wave, I am sure many have too. Especially, your immediate surrounding. Cheers.

        Would like to know, how are you doing health-wise? I can see your excitement through your work and could very well take that as an answer, but, I thought I must ask.

        Liked by 1 person

      9. Okay then.. May your spirit bloom your garden and may their spirit heal you in return. And may we continue to have the joy of such posts that have genesis in both your spirits(you and the garden) Cheers.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. Haha. Like us all 🌺 Maybe one day I will try a little garden, even just some common spices that are good fresh, peas, beans, and maybe some spinach or lettuce. I like the fresh produce/spices . But they are much work so I admire you for putting that effort into your yard 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

  3. Wow amazing! So much of greenery all around! Gardening is a liberating hobby! My dad attends the plants in our garden and has always been taking care of them,ever since I can remember.I just like walking around and admire the colors of Nature! Great to see your nice initiatives! Surely you will have the saplings sprouting soon! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. wow, I want a garden like that! I have to constrain my gardening to planters since I live in an apartment complex. I don’t get much sun so I have shade-loving plants instead of the tomato plants I grew at my last place. Oh well.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I totally understand! I had years and years of container gardening — and for what it’s worth, I still do! I have some beautiful planters I bellied up for and bought in my 20’s that I still use today! Going outside this morning and seeing our pumpkins breaking through the soil, our salad microgreen mix thriving, smelling flowers in bloom — just a walk in nature is invigorating! I’m not sure that I was meant to be a gardener, but I was surely meant to enjoy the fruits of the labor! Like many lessons, I learn my gardening mistakes best the hard way 😉 I’m also looking for suitable shade plants for my low light areas – I’ll try to get a post going on what’s working for me 🙂 So great to follow your progress #Inspirational!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Thank you! I am very interested in learning more about shade plants. I am slowly filling in the dirt area outside of my patio. I have to do it on the quiet since it’s not allowed. Everyone else has filled in theirs but they have also lived here for decades. if I keep it slow, they might not notice until it’s established and then I’m hoping they will think it’s always been there 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      2. 😉 Ah Ha! A nice fern would fill the area well and depending on your region, may even be able to stay out over winter. If not, you could sit the pot into a hole in the soil and it could live there until the first frost. Lots of options for the shade garden!

        Like

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