Five Years Gone

Here's a lesson I learned today: Taking a summer off your yard is like taking five summers off.

I was super sad to discover that the beds I've spent five years building are covered in strong, tenacious Creeping Charlie. After tearing them out carefully, trying to be delicate around the stuff I wanted to keep, I realized there wasn't much that falls into that category.

My roses are finally dead (but that's not too shocking... they've been suffering a slow demise for five summers). My iris, the first thing to pop color into our backyard each spring are also gone. I found only the shells of the root balls of one. They crumbled in my gardening glove.

I'm sad, but I'm also excited. This summer will basically be the start of a brand new garden. And this time, I'll have five years of experience behind me.