Gardening, Part I

 What do poor people do?  Look for free stuff on freecycle.org.  When I was pregnant with Violet I was looking for any potential free items I could use.  An recommended that I look at both Craigslist and Freecycle.org.  I paid a low price for a few items on Criagslist and one item on Freecycle.org.  I have continued to receive the emails that tell me the exciting things that people are giving away of Freecycle.  A 6 ft cactus that needs a good home, hard boiled eggs, and every once in a while something practical.  I have been wanting to work on my yard, but the cost of purchasing plants is crazy.  I decided that I would just start digging and then buy just a few plants at a time.  I have continued to look at the emails sent to me on Freecycle and saw that someone was thinning out their perennials and giving them away.  I decided to take her up on the free plants.  So, I began digging around the house, pulling up the weeds, and picked up some plants. Violet was helping....although her picture is washed out (whoops, poor photography skills) she was out and ready to help me.

 I dug out around the house with the help of Abdu.  The lines were marked where the lines are.  Here you can see the grass that was felt because there are electrical lines there and we needed to be more careful.

 I widened out the area next to the fence.  I am eventually going to create a rounded or curve to the line, but that is for another day.

 I got bags full of plants, including some small little sprouts.  I don't know the names of all of the plants I got, but here are a few: knautia macedonia, native columbine, variegated ribbon grass, viola, heliopsis helianthoides, asiatic lilies, and a few succulents.  There is at least one other plant that I don't know what its name is.  One of the best parts is the woman told me that she will have additional plants that will be large enough to transplant in 2-3 weeks.  This made it so that I could accomplish a goal without having to spend more money than the gas for a 10 minute drive.  You have no idea how happy this makes me.  It is only the beginning, but it is a start.

 Here is one of the columbine plants on the left.  I transplanted three of my hostas here too.  They are way too big and I didn't love them where they were.  I still have huge patches of hostas that I am going to eventually move or remove in the next few weeks.

Looking down the fence line you can see a few plants.  There are some tiny buds in the ground that you can't see.  So, I am hoping that in a few weeks they will become larger and easier to see.  I hope to put down some mulch.  It turns out that the city has sites with free wood chip mulch that you can go and pick up.  They deliver for money, but you can pick it up yourself for free.  I think that I might take advantage of the offering.  Who isn't about free stuff.  Getting something else done, beside the things I feel like I am required to do, made me feel good.  Plus, Violet was a very good during the process.  Perhaps she is meant to be a gardener someday.