A belated Father's Day Post
For good reason though. We were too damn busy! For Father's Day this year we decided to "do" rather than just "buy". Any good father will tell you that that's their area of expertise. Dad's "do" things. They rototill yards, they fix things, they paint, they play sports with their kids. They "go": fishing, camping, hunting. Men are inclined to take action. So, in that spirit, we did our own little backyard makeover this year.
As you may know, my dad had knee replacement surgery a while ago. He's certainly on the mend, but getting down onto his knees to weed a flower garden is still out of the range of reasonable. In my parents backyard there is a large flower garden. Every year my father would weed and plant and water this thing. It was quite beautiful. In fact, for their anniversary we bought a water fountain to put in the middle of it. As the spring sprung, the garden slowly became a weed forest. Us kids, with the best of intentions, decided to fix the problem.
I devised a plant that would use a lot of mulch and perennials. I researched flowers to make sure our choices were hardy and as carefree as possible. Little watering, rapid growth. Sunday, we set to work.
Pat started off at 10am with mutton pies. Then he started digging. We had to run electricity out to the circle for the fountain. 35 foot long trench, 18 inches deep. Everyone helped! The guys did the digging (Mike, Matt, Aaron, Pat, David). Patrick rototilled the whole garden, Sharon and Lisa assembled the cast iron fountain, I did the cleaning of the circle. Aaron did the electrical work and Dave did the carpentry work. Planting involved all the kids, Kathy, me, Lisa and Dave. We put about 50 plants in the ground.
The fountain looks gorgeous!! It even has little lights in it and at night my mother said it looked like it had floating candles in it. We used lots of greens and accented with flowers in shades of purple, pink and white. The border is creeping thyme and will over time create a beautiful carpet all around the perimeter of the garden. Flowers chosen were mostly perennials: cosmos, pinks, dianthus. I accented with African violets and begonias. And some other plant that I can't remember the name of. To finish it off we used a black mulch to coordinate the color of the fountain (it's cast iron).
Somehow, we finished this project in one day. Most of it was started at noon and was complete at 6pm.
Which makes me wonder how the heck we're going to top this next year?!
Great day. It was a really wonderful day. Even though most of the dads worked their butts off. I owe you Aaron!!
I'll post pics when I get some.
As you may know, my dad had knee replacement surgery a while ago. He's certainly on the mend, but getting down onto his knees to weed a flower garden is still out of the range of reasonable. In my parents backyard there is a large flower garden. Every year my father would weed and plant and water this thing. It was quite beautiful. In fact, for their anniversary we bought a water fountain to put in the middle of it. As the spring sprung, the garden slowly became a weed forest. Us kids, with the best of intentions, decided to fix the problem.
I devised a plant that would use a lot of mulch and perennials. I researched flowers to make sure our choices were hardy and as carefree as possible. Little watering, rapid growth. Sunday, we set to work.
Pat started off at 10am with mutton pies. Then he started digging. We had to run electricity out to the circle for the fountain. 35 foot long trench, 18 inches deep. Everyone helped! The guys did the digging (Mike, Matt, Aaron, Pat, David). Patrick rototilled the whole garden, Sharon and Lisa assembled the cast iron fountain, I did the cleaning of the circle. Aaron did the electrical work and Dave did the carpentry work. Planting involved all the kids, Kathy, me, Lisa and Dave. We put about 50 plants in the ground.
The fountain looks gorgeous!! It even has little lights in it and at night my mother said it looked like it had floating candles in it. We used lots of greens and accented with flowers in shades of purple, pink and white. The border is creeping thyme and will over time create a beautiful carpet all around the perimeter of the garden. Flowers chosen were mostly perennials: cosmos, pinks, dianthus. I accented with African violets and begonias. And some other plant that I can't remember the name of. To finish it off we used a black mulch to coordinate the color of the fountain (it's cast iron).
Somehow, we finished this project in one day. Most of it was started at noon and was complete at 6pm.
Which makes me wonder how the heck we're going to top this next year?!
Great day. It was a really wonderful day. Even though most of the dads worked their butts off. I owe you Aaron!!
I'll post pics when I get some.
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