In honor of upcoming Mother’s Day, I’m dedicating a well-deserved post entirely to my mom’s unique and inspiring garden. It’s usually a parent who is proud of his or her child, but in this case it’s me who is proud of my mom. There are many things to be proud of her for, but this particular post speaks to her amazing, lush, bountiful grass-free garden. She doesn’t have one blade of grass growing anywhere on her property. And she has one of the greenest thumbs I know, to boot. She has instilled a love of gardening in me from a very young age. I have many memories of watering and planting flowers with her.
Last year my parents took out their lawn (all on their own) and put in primarily low-water perennials, including a beautiful rock stream bed. Many rock stream beds look completely unnatural and manmade, but theirs captured a much more natural feel, thanks to a variety of high quality rocks in varying sizes. They designed the placement of each large rock and the flow of the stream bed to accent their plant design and natural shape of the front yard.
Here’s what it looked like BEFORE (a very typical suburban yard):
Fore!
And AFTER:
View from the sidewalk.
Approaching the front door, there is an alternate flag stone pathway leading to a restful bench.
One of my favorite things about their front yard is the variety of plants. It lends so much visual interest. The plants spilling over into the rock stream bed add to the natural look.
And if that wasn’t enough garden eye candy, a few weeks back my mom decided to take on another garden adventure close to my heart: a vegetable garden. Her backyard is home to a gorgeous succulent container garden. We cleared the sunniest area, disposed of more than a few root-bound potted succulents and filled the pots with fresh, organic potting soil. We made a special trip to a nursery with an extensive veggie selection, which allowed my mom to pick out a cucumber, yellow squash and green bean specifically bred for containers. They are more compact and do well in such a situation. These types of veggies can also be found in many seed catalogues.
You can do a vegetable container garden, too!
Yellow Squash loving it’s new home.
I donated a few things that I’d grown from seeds, such as a Black Krim heirloom tomato and a cherry tomato seedling. She is so pleased with her new veggie garden that the other day we added two more pots and planted Alpine strawberry seeds, basil seeds and yellow & green patty pan squash seeds.
Way to go, Mom! Now you’ve got your own bountiful backyard. I can’t wait for you to taste your first harvest.
I love gardening with you.
Bountiful Backyard 