Beautifying the Yard

We have lovely, warm, kind and talented next-door neighbors who bless us with their generosity and love.  They are also amazing gardeners and have a big, terraced backyard garden.  They have green thumbs.  Mrs. Neighbor saves her own seeds and isn't afraid to experiment with a variety of plants such as lovage, stevia, etc. 

Husband Lance and I have kind of grayish-black thumbs.  We grow weeds.  Really hearty, healthy weeds.  For a few years I've had a little side-yard container garden which has yielded a few good tomatoes, scraggly and twisted carrots, strange-looking cucumbers, some decent looking and tasting green beans, bizarre zucchini and some parsley that grows in abundance regardless of the care I give it.  Oh, and some mostly bitter lettuce, and spinach that always bolted a day or two after it emerged from the soil.

I've always wanted a beautiful-looking raised bed garden and have dropped many hints to my handyman husband, but there have always been other things on his "to-do" list of higher priority.  Mrs. Neighbor wanted a bigger garden to plant even more stuff--specifically tomatoes, since her previous tomato spot had some issues that weren't conducive to tomato growing.  She and I have been known to collaborate on projects; we put our heads together and hatched a plan.  I would try to convince Handsome Handyman Husband to build a garden.  He and I would pay for the supplies and the soil.  Mrs. Neighbor would plant the garden and supervise the maintenance and harvesting.  Both families would share the produce.

Although it took him more time and effort than he and I anticipated, my beloved husband (with some capable assistance of a semi-cooperative 16-year-old son) built a raised garden of beauty.  We bought 12 cubic yards of topsoil and, together with the neighbors, and other neighbors and some kind missionaries, schlepped it to the backyard.  Mrs. Neighbor planted 16 tomato plants, beans, peas and rutabagas and maybe some other stuff.  For good measure, she planted marigolds to ward off  a possible slug invasion and to discourage our canine companion from upsetting the tomatoes. 

The chicken manure fertilizer was a bit too enticing for our canine companion, so Husband had to erect a temporary fence and "gates" to keep canine out. 

After planting the garden, Mrs. Neighbor turned her attention to our unsightly front yard weed garden.  It didn't used to be a weed garden.  It only used to be a partial-weed garden.  In the 26 years we've inhabited our home, I've only liked the front yard area about 2 years.  Mrs. Neighbor asked me to describe the vision I had for that area.  She helped me create one, and then went to work on the beautification project.  She also suggested plants to purchase and even went shopping with me to buy the supplies and plants.  Mrs. Neighbor is also a magician.  After seeing the finished project, a realtor friend (perhaps in jest) told me that the value of our property has increased $50,000.

I hope to maintain the beauty and integrity of both garden areas and keep them from turning into yet another family weed garden.  Wish me luck.