The Native Plant Garden is FINISHED!!!

I am proud to announce that the

Native Plant Garden is finished!

It has years to grow now, but I can

look at it and be very happy with

what we have accomplished. This

little garden has an elegant air

about it, exactly what we wanted.

I love it.

We had a workday where the kids came to lay the buffalo grass sod. Everybody was in a tither a few days after we laid it, as it was shocked, and turned almost all brown. Most thought it was dead.

With water, both from the hose and from the sky, it rebounded, and it is just beautiful! I had never seen buffalo grass before, and I would consider putting it in my yard, if I didn't already have too much grass.

The girl in the overalls here is not one of the kids. Rather, she is one of the Master Gardeners. (Actually, she is the little boy's mama. ) Bobby had high praise for these kids. He said they listened when you told them something, and did it the way you asked them to. He said they were used to working.

Bobby looks happy doesn't he? He was putting in the trellis uprights on this day. He was great, and he is so glad this thing is finished.
We had decided to get it all finished by May 5th, as one of our members was bringing her sororiety through it that evening for a tour. So, on Monday, Peggy, Sonja, Margaret and I met to work. We were joined by Debbie and Kenneth, and we were so happy to see them. It was Kenneth's birthday, so we were very pleased that he agreed to spend part of his birthday helping on this project.This was taken after we had a nice rain. You can see the grass in this picture and in the next. It is sooo pretty! Also, our bridge is in by this time. Sonja and her sweetie, Robin, and Bobby and I went on Sunday to put in the bridge, and finish the trellis'.

We are in the middle of planting this little bald cypress tree here. It has gone into shock since being planted, and turned brown, but it is not dead. We have decided to give it a good chance, to see if it will recover. If it doesn't', I have a couple of others that can be moved to that spot.

We planted and planted, all the plants that had been collected to this point. When all the plants were in the ground, Peggy, Debbie, and Sonja sped around the garden with packets of seeds, planting with abandon.

We had to backfill our rain garden a bit, as it was a little deep, and didn't drain as fast as it should. We had help from our two trusty Trustees, Mike and Aaron, and got that job done quickly. Then we could plant in that area, things like equisetum and spider lily. We had a load of river rocks and pea gravel to distribute in the 'creek bed', and we cleaned up the rocks that were piled in front of our bridge.

Our last big workday was Saturday, May 3rd. We got the bench built. We are REAL PROUD of our bench!

It was one of those projects where one person suggested this, and someone else said that. It worked out very nicely.

We had kids of all ages. Some big, some little, and they weeded like pros! And I think they all had a good time.

(Look at our pretty yaupon there, with it's red berries!)

We have finished the Native Plant Garden! Of course, it has to grow up now, but it already has the 'feel' of a finished garden. We will be changing out plants in the future and adding to our collection too. I just can't wait for it to get to the 'leaping' stage.

You know.....

The first year it sleeps.

The second year it creeps.

The third year it LEAPS!

It is going to be BEE-UTE-E-FULL!