Yardwork!

I remember as a kid meandering through my grandparents' garden, munching on raspberries and peas. There's nothing like plucking something straight out of the garden and plopping it in your mouth.

I also remember growing a garden at our house in North Logan. All I really remember getting out of it was some pumpkins, but I probably wouldn't have eaten anything that came out of it at that point (I was a monstrously picky eater until college).

But then we moved to Arizona right before I turned 12. And that was the end of my gardening experiences. Anything that will grow in Arizona will grow without much help (cactus, citrus trees, beautiful, poisonous flowers). But a standard garden? Not a chance.

After 13 years of having no experience with growing anything besides a pea plant for a Young Women (it never grew), I thought I wouldn't have much desire/talent. But it turns out that it's slightly addicting.

We started last summer with a tomato plant and a container of chives. We got lots of delicious tomatoes, and fresh chives (they're still going strong, one year later). So this year we decided to try a little more.

Since we're in a townhome with a tiny backyard, we can't have a legitimate garden. Instead, we do container gardening on our deck. So here's what we have growing this year:

Strawberries...


...and peas


Chives and dill weed
(and if you know anything about dill weed, you'll laugh at the size of my pot. Obviously I didn't do my research before I planted this one)


Spinach (behind) and green beans (we had issues with the first planting--it rained too much and the seeds all rotted besides this one. I just planted some more)


And one of our two glorious tomato plants. I'm so excited!

We also have a tiny little raspberry bush given to us by someone in the ward. I didn't get a picture, but at this point it's so tiny it won't be much to look at.

Besides gardening, we've spent our weekend doing yardwork. It's exhausting, but I really enjoy it. Here's what we were up to this weekend:

When we bought our house, the stairs up to the front door looked like this:

All the dirt under them had settled or eroded. You could see straight through to the other side. Not good.

Now our stairs look like this:We packed the space underneath the steps with rocks, pounded in a liner to keep said rocks in place, and then seeded all the dirt patches around the edges.

Jon's big project (besides the steps) was this:
See that lovely hose holder thing? It wasn't there before.
I'm so glad to finally have one. Maybe next year that bush will actually be able to grow since it won't be crushed by our hose...

And this was my big project:
I trimmed the stupid spiky bush on the left (it's beautiful, but nasty), and planted those mystery flowers. My neighbor was given a bunch of them and passed her extras on to me. We don't have any idea what they are. I know they're perennials (bulbs), and am fairly sure they're irises, but we probably won't find out until next year when they bloom. All I know is that they aren't daffodils. Thats the extent of my flower knowledge.

More mystery flowers around the tree (which I trimmed). I also mulched everything (with Seth's help). Seth's main jobs were to dig up what I already planted and to scatter grass seed where it wasn't actually needed. He was very proficient at both...

On an unrelated topic: is it possible to be addicted to running? It's the strangest thing--I loathe running, despite every attempt to convince myself to like it (I think this is partially because I have exercise-induced asthma and I start wheezing like an old horse). The whole time I'm doing it, I can't wait to be done.

But the past week I've been running several times with Seth in the jogging stroller. The run is about a mile and a third, and about half of it is uphill (ish). My time isn't impressive, but it's getting better. But I hate running.

So here's my question: why do I want to do it? Why am I looking forward to running tomorrow? I hate running, but I love how I feel after I'm done.

See, Kellie? All that running in Texarkana wasn't totally wasted on me...