Amaranth and Flowers

Last post the ugly ‘before’ pic showed up in the reader first – yes, I’m lazy and fail to use the featured image option most days – –

So, I’ll show you the ‘after’ view – depicting the fence area cleaned yesterday and the portion of the fence row I got done before running out of the awesomely priced edging bricks I picked up for the whole strawberry episode (the stones were priced so nicely, I bought all I could afford – had enough left over to get this latest project 1/2 done – )

Gold and Burgundy Amaranth

And now, the ugly before pic –

Around the tree area, I put down a flower seed mat I purchased from Yankee Candle – What?!? You didn’t know they sold flower/garden stuff?   Okay, I’ll tell you the story – My co-worker’s granddaughter approached me about buying something from their fund raising catalog from Yankee Candle to support her 4-H group – choking back a sigh, I looked up the website and vainly searched for something I actually wanted to purchase and support her cause – – lo and behold, they had flower seed mats and I bought six, gleefully pulling some money from my garden/landscaping budget to make a good showing as a philanthropist that supports local youth groups instead of buying what I could afford out of my discretionary budget, which had already been blown supporting my son’s baseball teams’ quest for summer camp and uniform money – – (Netted Little Caesar pizza kits for when I’m too tired to cook dinner out of that donation….)

I’ve tried the mats before (from other fundraising fiascoes) and haven’t ever had much luck with them – but what the heck, a donation is a donation and perhaps these will work – –

white area is the flower seed mat from Yankee Candle, before thoroughly covered with dirt and watered.

And finally, the part where I had to stop because I ran out of black edging for near the fence and stones for the front  – But Friday is  payday and my budget for ‘Gardening:Supplies’ will be replenished!  Can’t wait for TGIF!

Oops! Ran out of supplies – I was tired of lugging dirt, anyways.

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We started off this project with the wheelbarrow to haul the dirt in – as I knelt near the front, to keep the edging stones from getting pushed over and scraped the last bit from the barrow, a loud ‘bang’ went off – I thought one of us had been the victim of a drive-by shooting and quickly looked to ensure the boy was still standing – –

Alas, we filled the barrow too full and didn’t do proper maintenance – the front tire ruptured itself smack dab in the middle, resulting in my ears ringing for a good twenty minutes – who knew wheelbarrow tires could be so scary and noisy?