...was my work in the garden last week at the lake, yet I wasn't unhappy doing it, surrounded by so much spring loveliness, so very fresh and full of promise...
I spent two and half days mostly carrying and stacking rocks to make retaining walls for new garden beds, lugging what seemed a crazy amount of bags of soil up the driveway to fill the new garden beds, digging out trees which were not thriving were I first planted them and replanting them in new (hopefully better) spots, planting new trees and shrubs in my bid to reforest out rocky weathered "hill" of a property and wrapping all that needed to be protected from deer snacking with chicken wire... While this may all sound like serious drudgery, it was from from it because the sun was shining and it felt more like June than April; I even jumped into the lake to cool off which, as you can imagine, I did in no time, the temperature of the water being still far from its summer highs! Needless to say, I was also quite happy toiling away in my garden because my lovely lilacs, which I planted a few years ago, were at very their best and the balmy weather infused the air with their heavenly scent...
It's been four years now since I planted some parts of my garden at the lake and these plantings are finally starting to take on the look of an established garden; I think it took a little while for many of the plants to start thriving because of the rocky and very exposed nature of the property, but I've worked hard at amending the soil and I'm definitely starting to notice the fruits of my labor. For example, when I think back at how this barren area just by the house looked four years ago which was basically a very thin veneer of soil on a rocky outcrop...
...to the way it looks now as you can see here...
...and here...
...I can't help myself from smiling and, despite all my sore muscles, bruises, scratches and bug bites, I can't help myself from yearning to go back to the lake for more digging, planting, lugging and stacking!
The one garden project I hope to really get a move on in the next few months is planting my veggie and berry garden. (You may remember my mention of it back here when I was building the stone wall to retain it.) Last fall, I sowed the bed with some green manure crops which have burst into healthy growth...
...and which I have turned under during the last bit of my stay at the lake...
Now, all I need is a deer fence... I'm not quite sure when that will happen because we are just about to renovate our kitchen in the city, but hopefully (fingers crossed!) in the near future; if not, I might just sprinkle the bed with some flower annual seeds for the time being... I leave you with a photo of my pear tree with all its lovely white blossoms; last year, it gave us two scrumptious pears and, who knows, maybe this year it will give us enough to make a pear tart!... I hope you enjoyed this little spring visit of my lake garden -- thanks for coming along!...
