Time to "Catch Up"

Journaling has never been my strong suit, well, anything that requires consistency has really never been my strong suit. I'm going to try to get my "journaling" caught up. Here are a few things that happened since my last post. It's been busy :)

The Oliver Girls Return

Geoff and Cheryl celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. As our gift to them, we took their three beautiful girls for the weekend and spoiled them rotten. It started out with dinner and a movie Friday night after we welcomed Rick back from Ireland. Then Saturday was spent walking through the Farmer's Market in Ann Arbor, The Hands On Museum and Monogolian BBQ for dinner. Sunday we explored the gardens in Marshall before our sad departure. Whatta blast!!

My Bro Turns 3-0!!

My brother's girlfriend, Lisa, pulled off a surprise party for my brother. (Yep another Brad and Lisa in my life). Rick and I helped as the "diversion". We headed out for a nice dinner then, true to form, my brother bugged us to go out for drinks. We agreed after his typical prodding. He was certainly surprised!!

A Walk Through The Garden....

I love to get ideas for my ever growing garden. I started out with a blank palette. So far my garden is your average run-of-the-mill garden. I'm happy with what I have but I am always looking forward to expanding it. In June and July, Rick and I hit the Ann Arbor Garden Walk solo. We took a trip to the Battle Creek Garden Tour with Lori and Matt. Then we drug the Oliver girls to the Marshall Garden Tour with us. So far this year, we have received the most inspiration from the garden on the Ann Arbor Garden Tour.

The garden was constructed on a flat lot. The husband and wife duo worked hard by building up several garden beds using large boulders as their base. They then added multiple trees of several varieties throughout. The remaining space in the garden was infused with several varieties of low maintenance perennials. Having the same varieties located throughout the garden in different areas provided consistency and "flow" to the garden. I counted over 20 Japanese Maples!! The garden was titled "Labor of Love". My favorite new plant that I feel in love with is the Foxtail Lily. Courtesy of Battle Creek garden tour. Thanks Lori for the invite. We had a blast! I simply love plants!!

The First Step In My Master Plan

For two years, Rick and I have debated - trees or fence, fence or trees. Our hedgerow has grown completely out of control and I'm tired of trimming the mess without the reward of a well-trimmed hedge. It's more like a well-trimmed mess. So again, the debate ensued. On the quest for a few herbs my favorite nursery didn't have in, I stumbled across the deal of a lifetime at Lucas Nursery. When Rick got back in town, I told him the good news. After checking it out himself, he agreed. Trees it is!! We decided that the goal would be the first weekend in June for install. We spent the weekend before cutting down the existing treeline. After getting out what we could, we asked Geoff to come over and dig up the tree trunks. Yep, our headgerow had full-sized scrub trees in it. Digging them out by the roots was the only way to stop future growth. We attempted it ourselves with Rick's truck. However, we weren't willing to risk the damage to his 12 year Ford or deal with the exucriating labor involved. It took Geoff a total of 2 hours to dig everything up. Saturday, June 6th, we got up at 10am and started the installation of the 43 Arborvitae trees. Believe it or not, we were done by 7pm that day with one tree leftover.