Oh Sew Nice: Stitching a Family together with God's Love.: In My Garden

I love my garden! I love to sew, but I really love to be outside planting and growing flowers in my garden.

I just finished a book called "Leota's Garden" By Francine Rivers. Leota shares one of the main reasons I love my garden too. She said she had always felt Jesus' presence in her garden the most. Is it because everything of great importance happened in a garden? Man fell in the Garden. Jesus taught in a garden. Jesus was betrayed in a garden. Jesus arose in a garden. I love this garden because when I am in it I see the wonder of His creation. I smell the earth and flower-scented air, and it stoothes me. It reminds me that God's hand is in it all. For I heard the voice of the Lord in the garden, calling me. If you enjoy reading and gardens and love Jesus I recommend this book by Francine Rivers.

So we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago. I loved the yard, but it needed a lot of work. The house came with lots of hedge bushes and cedars that were over grown and not pretty. The first thing my husband did was buy a chain saw and cut everything down.

This is the back side of the house where our arbor and bird bath is now.

This is where the retaining wall is now.

It was not a garden friendly yard. The first thing we thought to do was fix this side of the house up with a retaining wall that we could fill it in with good soil and compost. I also thought I could put a vegetable garden there too. So that is what we started growing in the garden box. Our first veggies came from seeds and that was so fun for all of us to watch. However we ended up moving the garden to the other side of the yard because I just wanted flowers in the retaining wall and that box was getting in the way.

Here is my husband hard at work on that retaining wall. He said he will not be building me another wall anytime soon! But I love the one he did do.

We filled our wall up with some soil, but mostly compost. When we first moved in we really wanted to start a compost pile. So my husband built a compost bin and we filled it up with all of our fall leaves. We filled the bin in no time because we have so many trees.

My husband and his best friend building our compost bin.

Turned out great. We love the amazing soil we get from it and all of the plants love it too. I use it for soil whenever we plant something and I use it as mulch around the flowers.

First we filled it up with our leaves and then we did add compost starter which you can get at any plant store. The we add 3 big packs of red worms. There are supposed to be the best worms for composting.

You have to turn the compost pretty often to help it turn into soil faster. We probably should turn it more than we do, but it all works out in the end.

The kids thought this part was great.

The start of our compost!

Here is our retaining wall all filled in and 2 years later in the winter before everything started popping up.

Here is the back side of our house just before spring. We had a lot of work ahead of us! But it looks so much better than the ugly bushes that used to be there.

Our first spring tulip! I love tulips. I think they are so bright and happy.

I have been working all March and April on this back side of the house. Now that spring has come I am starting to see the outcome of all our hard work. My husband is also putting a wood border around this side and the adjoining side. I love it. Now I don't have to worry about the rain and watering washing the soil away.

I used half of my compost to mulch the whole garden bed. This compost is amazing! The plants love it and it is full of worms.

Easter time. The flowers are coming.

And here it is today. I love the Clematis. They are exploding with flowers. I am also getting ready to plant a few Dianthus. I love the way they smell. This whole garden area smells amazing. The Paper Whites give off an amazing aroma too. I can't wait for my English rose to bloom.