I learned last spring that one can get away with having Christmas greenery and lights up on a porch until April in Minnesota. Since there is still snow on the ground, it just works and seems acceptable. (On Instagram, a reader and I dubbed the snow pattern on this door “snowmbre”.  Get it?  Snow…ombre?  Moving on.) But, the live greenery was starting to look sad just before Junk Bonanza, so I took a bit of time to take it down. Just before I did that, though, Jeff pointed out that there was a bird’s nest in the wreath.  I hadn’t noticed it, because it’s built in the top, left, inside corner of the wreath.  It’s really nestled in there and you can’t see it when you’re looking head-on at the door.  He told me we needed to remove the nest, so we don’t have birds pooping all over the door

It has been a lot of hard work, but all of the planting in the front garden is done! The garden was stripped down to bare dirt early last week and I then worked on improving the soil to help all of the plants grow stronger and healthier.  Jeff and I broke up the soil with a couple of spades and then I raked and hoed in some manure, humus, and garden soil.  It was tough work and I’m pretty sure I got manure on my face in the process.  Let’s just say that I made many visits to the utility sink while working and took a thorough bath that night! I worked on the planting over two days.  Digging for the bushes took a lot more time than I imagined, since I had to dig the holes much larger than the root ball.  The annuals along the sidewalk a

I was really getting the gardening itch in late May, but with all of the traveling we had coming up, it just didn’t make sense to buy a bunch of plants and start a project we couldn’t finish before we left.  So, I had to practice patience! Now that we’re home, we’re diving into some projects, including the front garden.  Monday of this week, we had some guys from our church’s youth group come out to help us dig up plants and bushes and move the rock out of the beds.  They were offering themselves for hire as a way to raise money for their upcoming service trip, so it was a win-win. The work was hard and, because of the rain the night before, it was muddy! Jeff and I worked along side them, so we could get as much done as possible. The boys even chipped in and