I love my garden. From the moment I first moved into this house I wanted to turn the front yard into a perennial garden. I figured it would have to wait, what with three kids and no money and all. But mother nature intervened for me, in the form of grubs. They ate the lawn that the last owner had lovingly poured tons of chemicals onto. We showed up in June of the hottest summer ever and at 7 months pregnant, I took the lawn of drugs but did nothing to support it through its withdrawal. It died, so the choice was to reseed or resod, or I could start on my gardening dream a little early. Garden it was!
I’ve been working on it for four years, very slowly. I plant tiny, cheap plants and make lots of mistakes. Gardening, I have found, is good therapy for a control-freak. You can’t control mother nature. I’ve had plants die, be eaten by rabbits (in fact, I have a whole bed of would-be-lovely crocuses (croci?) out there that have been chewed to the ground), squashed by children. I’ve had to move plants that I put in the wrong spot. I’ve learned that no matter how lovely they are, I better not get too attached to them.
It is a good thing I already learned this lesson before Jasper came to live with us, because if I hadn’t figured it out before, this weekend he made sure I get it now.
I could keep him inside, I know, but I can’t bear to see his sad little face looking out the front door at us as the kids play and I garden. So I let him out in the front with us. He’s very good about staying around, to the point that whatever I was doing, he had to stick his nose between me and my hands and watch very, very closely. And he wants to help. Help, in dog terms, means that he’d like to dig a hole for me.
When my back was turned, it took him about 12 seconds to dig this hole. He only wiped out one columbine plant.
I got inventive and brought him to a spot that actually needs digging up. I dug a small hole to give him the idea and he went to town. I went back to my work, only to look up a few moments later and see him taking out a miniature rose bush in a different spot.
His ability to create a really big hole really quickly could be very useful if harnessed for good instead of evil, but I’m not quite sure how to get Jasper to dig where I want and not dig where I don’t want.
I know the answer is to just train him to not dig any holes, but I wish I didn’t have to do that, because digging makes him so happy. He has this huge grin on his face as he goes to it, and once he’s got a nice hole going, he leaps about in the loose earth he’s spread around. He also throws himself into the hole and quickly drops his head down onto his paws and stops moving, as though he thinks we won’t see him, then bursts out again. How can I deny him such joy?
At the same time, how can I let him destroy my garden? Here’s a before:
I did put the stones in (with help from J, of course), and start on a bed in the front . The bed around the lamp post was already there, but sad and old.
Here’s an after:
As you can see, there are still spaces that need work, but it is getting there. Or at least was, before Jasper showed up.
You’re an inspiration! I’ve determined that this is the year I’m going to try to fix up the garden. Your “after” picture is just lovely.
I can’t help with the digging issue. My dog doesn’t seem to know how to dig. He doesn’t know much, actually.
Your photos are getting me so excited to have my own yard this summer. Gardening is fun and I just love plants. I can’t wait to have a bigger house to buy more house plants. My plants love me and grow for me like weeds for some odd reason. Perhaps they feel my love I have for them. I hope I can do the gardening thing ok, I’ll really have to motivate myself for the weeding part. I want a garden FULL of Dahlias, I guess I’ll have to get other things but I love dahlias.
We put up an electric fence to keep the dog from picking the produce in the veg. garden. (Dog, ‘Ooh, look, cute green balls!’ Me, ‘There go my green peppers!’) She gave up on the flowers pretty young. One of my friends has a dog, however, who has never lost his passion for digging up the perennials around the house and snoozing in the nice cool hole that results. I’m a control freak about my dogs *and* my plants. I also yelled a lot.
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