Pix to remember the garden by, and first boxes

I loved and hated this yard. I mean I really did love it because of the scenic mountains we could see from here, and it was so large it was great for the pets and it buffered the neighbors, so we could feel that we had our own space. But the weeds were terrible and it needed a lot of water. I might try xeriscaping if I were to do it again. I understand now why so many people here landscape by putting down black plastic with rocks over the top and not having plants at all, or having a few peeking through, but I don't like that, and I wouldn't do it. We tore out all of the old black plastic but then the weeds had a field day. Once I found out that kitchen sage grew well, needed little water, survived winter, had purple flowers, and kept down the weeds, I began planting it everywhere. Unfortunately, I had to leave before most of the plants got big enough to do what they were supposed to do. The ones in the planter here are getting a good start, but they're still having to cope with the weeds, and the weeds were too much for me.

Here Elvis, Leila, and Pterelas are all enjoying being outside. Whenever I came out to work, I had lots of helpers.

The catnip has sprouted way up since last photo. I can't say Elvis pays any attention, but I like looking at it.

The plants in the front are sage. I even put one in the empty spot in the box with the rose bushes.

Happily-growing sage plants.

Here's another view of the garden facing west. Mt. Garfield is just behind that house. The grass had become a big problem. The gound got hard, as it will eventually since the soil is mostly clay. The weeds grow and the grass doesn't. It looked good when we moved in. It seems we needed to learn about lawns. I don't remember that lawns were such a science in California. You watered them and mowed them. This seemed to be a different set of rules.

Here are the first four moving boxes. I love bankers' boxes. They're so easy to stack and store. They're big enough to be useful and small enough not to be cumbersome. I got the bright idea to order a whole lot of them for everything that would fit in that size box, label them carefully, and place them on two-by-fours so they wouldn't get wet. It worked extremely well. I didn't realize it yet, but I was investing in furniture for my future apartment, too.

Feng Shui plants and Elvis

Did I say the grass was growing out of control? It was VERY out of control. Spring came before I knew it. I'm writing this at a later date, and I don't remember when Marco left, but it could have been by this time. Counseling didn't work. We were splitting up. I was going to move, and I didn't know where. We were getting a friendly divorce, and we had to follow through with that, then I'd move in a couple of months and he'd come back and reclaim the house. If I were going to get a divorce, I wanted to move someplace where I could be outdoors more of the year. I loved Palisade and Colorado, but I couldn't take the heat of summer, which lasted from early May all the way into October. Then due to the cold, it was hard to get out and do a lot in winter. I wanted someplace I could be outside and enjoy it. So I was giving it some thought.

I'd been reading some books on Feng Shui, and I realized that the right rear corner of our house was missing. That corner is designated the "love and marriage" corner. We weren't the only couple that had come to grief in this house, but the people who lived here before us had split up as well. Enhancing the corner wouldn't help us at this point, but maybe just for the sake of completion, or maybe I wanted to leave something for Marco, I wanted to fix the problem. I didn't have a lot of money to make a nice garden or gazebo or fountain out here in the empty spot, so I bought a plant I liked - a moonlight scotch broom - and I measured the coordinates carefully and then stuck it in the ground hoping he'd at least water it after I was gone. I chose the scotch broom because it was big and imposing and I thought it would "anchor" the corner. Little did I realize that it was also symbolically a part of my new life. The Oregon coast abounds in scotch broom.

Elvis liked the new plant.

One by one, all of our plants were turning green and growing like weeds. Here's the catnip, and you can see the dandylions getting a good start, too. I had worked and worked on them, but had refused to use herbicide. They were - totally - out of control.