Outdoor Clean-up

Oh, the magnificence of a teenager! We hired a couple teenagers to help us get our (not so) white fence cleaned so we (well, they...) could paint it.

Check out the progress just by cleaning!!

So it was a little green and gunky! Tell us something we didn't know!Big D has been replacing old, rotted posts this year and they will need to be painted. So we figured we better clean the rest of it (around the house people - not the entire five acres... yet!!!) So had cleaned on Tuesday and figured on painting on Friday, but this rain has really soaked the boards. We really had some good downpours last night (Wednesday). Don't think they will be dry by Friday.

Oh, and did I show you the other marvelous project we have coming up?? Yeah, a dump truck load of soil. I am so excited (for those teenagers) to get it in the new flowerbeds and (yet to be marked off) herb garden/patio area. Oh, to have a nice flower bed area again. Wait have I had on of those yet? Did I say nice? Well, at least to have one I can think about. Can't wait to get those garden/flower books out of the storage unit!! Arrgh.

OK, hope I can hang some laundry today!! :-)

When life gives you lemons, use lemon balm.

So the ugly container area I had of leftover pots and ungrown plants is now filling in. Life gave me "lemons" (problem pots) and also Lemon Balm!

So we found some more new plants to add to the container mish-mash this weekend. It is the lovely Lemon Balm. I have always loved herb plants and would love to make an herb garden at some point - whenever we get settled somewhere! But they are so beautiful on their own, as well as mixed in with perennial and annual flowers.

This Lemon Balm plant was on this property when we came and it has a lovely fragrance. Lemon of course, but also mint. (It is a member of the mint family.) I would love to try it as a tea, with honey as the article mentioned, but I read that pregnant and nursing women shouldn't have it. Bummer. It sounds so nice chopped and mixed into a lovely fresh fruit salad. I'll try to remember it for next summer.

It really needed to be divided. It looks like it was starting to die out in the center so I guess it was a good thing to move it. We divided it mainly because we didn't have a big enough pot for the entire plant, but I'm sure it will benefit from the division. I will add a picture soon. Raining again today after a lovely weekend which was entirely too hot for my northwest girl status (80 deg. F.)!