Gardening is Hard Labor… Not Fun, But Rewarding!

I thought I’d catch you up on the stuff that’s been going on around here….  There’s no fabulous room reveal or gorgeous furniture update. Just some good old fashion hard labor.

See, I told you nothing terribly exciting. Hard labor is hard, especially when you have a bum shoulder and knee! I tell you the warranty is going out on this girl! But I toughed it out!

You know, these pictures didn’t turn out half bad considering I just used my iPhone for them. :) I was just too lazy to go get my camera.

Anyway, awhile ago I put up a picture on Instagram of a skid of bricks… do you remember?

Yeah…what was I thinking? That is a ton of bricks, which equals a ton of work!

They were such a steal though and I thought all of the gardens would look so nice lined in bricks. It would make mowing and weed whacking easier. Plus it would keep all the mulch in the gardens, not all over the yard. Hubby and I are all about making things easier in the long run, even if it's a lot of hard work to get there. :)

Well, I tried digging out the first tree ring and it was rock solid clay, rocks and roots. That's when I began to second guess my idea…this was going to take me F O R E V E R!!!

Then it rained for days… So, I thought I’d give it another go. It was a 1000 times easier!! Thank you, Lord! As much as I complain about the rain, I was soooo very thankful for it! Granted it was still clay, rocks and roots, but at least the dirt moved!

Before I tackled the light post ring, I wanted to transplant this ‘kinda ugly’ evergreen plant to another location.

See…not that cute. But it’s a good plant, and I found a place for it.

This is the ugly electrical/cable boxes area that we have in front of our place. Might as well dress them up a bit.

Just need to dig out the hole and, this will be that plant’s new home.

Look! So much better! Now it doesn’t look so ugly. 

For now, I just laid the bricks around the garden, they aren’t ‘cemented’ in yet. But this is what I’m talking about!!

Up next, all these rings….

Since the dirt was cooperating…I just kept at it! This light post ring was a bit too big, so I made is smaller. I’ll have to work on some grass seed to fill it all in, but that will be later. Yeah, it’s pretty ugly right now.

Now the tree rings… they are identical 50” rings. They went pretty smoothly… chopping roots, digging out stones.


Then I came across a boulder! Well, a pretty large rock!

Yeah, that was right in my way! It left a nice hole I had to fill…under the grass. It probably went back about 9-10inches.

Well, it’s not glamorous and gorgeous… I’m sore, but I’ve got three garden rings ready for bricks! Let’s do this!

As long as it keeps raining and the ground is soft, I’m going to keep digging! A digging maniac! Hopefully this girl will make it through!

Blessings!