End of the Year 2018

It has been since ten months that I am away from this blog. It is because I now have a baby, well she has already grown to an eighteen month old toddler. It was easier to do some blogging when she was really young but I am finding that babies really become much more demanding as they grow up :-). My blogging and other free time flew out of the window as soon as she crossed one year of age.

Here she is busy inspecting the porch Christmas tree

Here she, with her father, is accepting gift from Santa 

It has been a disastrous year in terms of gardening. I did not get any time to go out to the garden as I was busy with my full-time work, household work and motherhood work. Also, it was one of the wettest year in the history of NJ. Until September, the state received 32 percent above normal rain.

So, our garden grew so wild that in October we needed to call out landscaping company and shell out twenty-five hundred dollar to just clear out all the overgrown plants, weeds and mowing the knee-high grass.

But, I have lots of plans for the year 2019. She will be a two year old lady in June, and I am hoping that she will develop interest in nature and gardening, and that will help me in gardening What do you think? What does your experience say -- will I be able to devote lots of time in gardening with a toddler and at the same time have my full time and other jobs?

Some of the plans are already under way. Our garden is very uneven and slopy, with ups and downs. So, we already built a leveled patio. We also built a beautiful raised bed.

This is what the area looked before

This is how the area looks now with a brand-new patio

This is how the side area looked like

A portion of the side area now has this beautiful raised bed

Still lots of work left -- more raised beds on other sides, arbor for grapes, cleaning of leaves and pruning. I have some trees by the side and front of the new patio. Since the patio is made of bricks, I am thinking of creating some kind of structure around the base of the tree, a brick circle with stones as mulch, as shown in the picture below:

Much of our lawn got stripped off in the process of building all these structures. So, instead of laying down a lawn, I am going to plant in creeping thyme, sage and oregano and lay down a path in between.

A big play area for the toddler was also created. On it will go tree-house and swings and playing sets for the toddler. By its side will be grown kid's flower garden and kid's vegetable garden.

We truly have an ever-evolving garden. Since we moved into this house in 2009, our garden has gone from bare green lawn to wilderness area, from tiny raised bed and vegetable garden to big raised beds and fruits, herbs, flowers and vegetable garden, from really used and nice self-built greenhouse (which even produced during winter but got destroyed during hurricane Sandy) to a broken greenhouse. Now, it is slowly turning into a matured, family-friendly but also at the same wilderness-friendly garden.

So, to all of my garden friends, I wish all of you Happy Gardening in 2019 and to all of us, many, many years of good health and happy gardening. May the New Year of 2019 brings lots of good vibes and harmony and peace in both your life and your garden. A Very Happy New Year to all of you.