Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Friendly Gardeners

Yesterday, my neighbor called and had a favor to ask me...you see, the first owners of our house, planted a pint tree right on the property line, and it was growing into the her yard - kind of into their garden. So, she asked if I minded if she cut it back. Ummm, that took me all of 3 seconds to answer that one! Usually, I would think that your neighbor would ask you to take care of it...not to volunteer to do it! So, I said, "sure, it will be less work for Dawson to do!"

So, while I was taking care of the kids, and getting dinner ready, etc., she took care of the tree.

Then, when both of my kids woke up and I was trying to get the dinner in the oven, there was a knock at the door - I thought in my head, "you've got to be kidding me!" - the oven is done preheating, the baby is crying because I need to feed him, Brady wants to watch a video and now I have to answer the door!!! (I think that being tired may have caused some over reaction too).

Well, I opened the door and there was my neighbor - with a huge smile. I think that she is always smiling and laughing - she is fun to be around. Anyway, when I opened to door, she said, "Hi, it's your friendly gardener!" She then went on to let me know that they trimmed the tree back and that she planted 2 cherry berry tomato plants in an area in my back yard that she got from another neighbor - she watered it with miracle grow and put a little wire fence around it. I just could not believe that she did all of that for me! I was so amazed by her kindness! We had talked about where I would plant the tomatoes when I got them from the neighbor, but I did not expect her to do it for me! Oh, she also said that she pulled up a few weeds that grew back in the area that we weeded!

She really blessed me.

Today, I had a visit from my MIL, Nanny. We were talking and she asked how the weeding was going. So, I told her about all that my neighbor and I did, but how there is that huge middle area to do. So, do you know what she told me? She had brought over her gloves and tools and was ready to help me with some of the weeding! It is a little humbling in some ways to have all of these weeds to get rid of, but I am so thankful that the Lord has been sending some people over to help me out with it!

So, Brady went outside with her and was "helping" her and ended up coming inside to rinse his mouth...somehow some dirt got into his mouth! So, I did the best that I could to get most of it out...but some of it was not going to come out of the grooves of his teeth unless I brushed them or he ate lunch. I was getting lunch ready anyway, and they say that you eat about 20 pounds of dirt in your lifetime anyway...so, I opted to not worry about the little bit that I could not wipe out. I figured that he would get a little head start with the 20 pounds! :)

I am so thankful for these two helpful gardeners that have helped me to begin to get my landscaping in order again. It has been a boost that I needed to continue to find the time to get out there and continue to work on it.

Any suggestions on what the best way(s) to keep the weeds from coming back? I would love to hear them! I am new to this gardening stuff - so, any suggestions are welcome! :)

2 comments:

Hands-Free Heart said...

Both my boys have eaten dirt while "helping" in the garden. It comes out the other end, a little gritty ;)

I'm not much of a gardener myself, but HotSauce uses cocoa mulch... it smells so good for the first couple of weeks, especially when it rains! Sometimes he uses some sort of black mesh tarp thing comes on a roll. He lays it out and cuts little holes for the plants to come up through. It also keeps more moisture in the soil (as does mulch).

Kelli said...

Wow! That was so wonderful for you to have them help like that!!

Weeds...we used something at our old house for weeds. Not sure was it Preen? That sounds familiar. I'll ask Shawn.