Gardens live. Gardens die. A garden story.

We've been in our house for just over three years now, and the first couple years were spent completing our unfinished lowest level and adding a bedroom after baby Ezra had arrived. During that time we obviously did not have time to give much thought to the outside of our house. But we got to work this last summer. 

We started the projects in the spring by making this path around our back deck from of the leftover bricks after we demolished our fireplace.

We moved all the perennial plants around and planted Cosmos flowers for this area that had always been empty.

The plants began to come up and when they bloomed, it was quite pretty. I waited with bated breath for the Cosmos to come up. After they were like six inches high, they were hailed on and demolished. So I replanted. Then again, they were hailed out. Thankfully, they mostly recovered, though they were kind of bent and contorted from the beat-down they endured.

Then finally, at the end of August, they bloomed. 

I was so proud of them, my labor of love ;)

Before:

And after... The first frost came and killed them all. It made me so sad. Everyone was excited for the fall colors and sweaters and scarves and boots and pumpkin flavor but I was disappointed that all my hard work was dying. I'd never planted anything before and it was so gratifying to see it all grow and flourish. 

I love summer. I'm cold three out of four seasons, so it's nice to be warm for once. That and I don't have to put boots, snow pants, mittens, hats and coats on four kids every time they want to go outside. And I feel so hopeful with the extended sunlight, seeing people out and about, thunderstorms, growth, life. I love it. Fall? Not so much. Winter? Not at all. Spring? That's the same as winter here. Long live summer!

Here is the Sweet Sensation Clematis that came with the house. It blooms in late summer or early autumn and though the blooms are beautiful little star shapes, they don't last long. Just a couple of weeks and then they fall off. But at least the whole thing is still hanging in there after two frosts. 

Next up on our list for projects was a garden. We have pine trees along the sunny back line of our yard with small hills in the corners. We therefore decided on building two raised beds next to the house where there's empty space and plenty of sun. This is the southeast bed.

We planted carrots, peas and green beans here. This is the view from the deck.

And then the hail came three weeks later. 

Yet again I replanted and everything came up, except the peas (in the middle). This was August so the Cosmos (which were the only sheltered ones) had just started to bloom. We had lots of carrots and green beans for dinner...and like five peas all summer.

I took this picture on my birthday, September 17th. Sigh.

Quite the difference from when we began! 

And then the frost came last week. There was much weeping and mourning and gnashing of teeth. 

This is our other raised bed, on the southwestern side of the house. Look at our wee baby strawberry and two tomato plants! So cute compared to the monsters they became.

And again, then the hail came and shredded the tomatoes pretty good. So I bought another one and when it got hot in July, they really started to take off. 

Before:

And after... Sadness!

And perhaps the most disappointing of all is my front bed. I (okay, we) sure worked hard to make this area more beautiful. First we (okay, Terry) dug up the pine tree/bush root and we planted two lovely pink hydrangeas with four little teeny grasses. 

Despite how we labored to protect them from snow and other foul weather, we could not protect them from the massive hail storm. But they seemed to think, "though He slay us, still we will trust [grow] in Him," and they came back! I bought other plants for half off at Hardware Hank late in the season and they all took right off.

We planted a blue hydrangea on the other side of the front deck and it's done so well. It did get hit with the hail too, but not as bad, perhaps because it was smaller and had time to recover. So far the frost has only turned it a funny shade of purple. This was before that though.

See how much they had recovered?

My crowning achievement, my Morning Glories, were climbing and growing and thriving! I was so happy. I thought they added such a nice touch to the long, empty porch.

I thought perhaps they'd start growing downwards once they climbed up the plant hook (which I hadn't planned on but liked nonetheless)...

...but it just kept growing up and out! It was a huge bushy mass! Actually, it was a little strange how enormous it was, but I still liked it.

I was so worried that it wouldn't bloom though. I thought perhaps I had planted it too late (mid-June), it didn't get enough sun or I had a bad batch of seeds, but on September 30th, it finally bloomed!

I loved those spiraling blue blooms, even though I only got to see them for a couple weeks.

So many of these twisted buds were killed off before they could bloom.

There would have been many many more of them had the confounded frost not come. But I should give thanks that we didn't get it even before they bloomed. Last year we had snow on September 11th!

But alas, summer is not meant to last. This was after one frost.

After two frosts.

Good bye growing beauties! I hope to see you again in greater number next year (now that I've learned a thing or two).  

sister visit hike - lower hippie hole

As I mentioned in my last post, my sister was here at the end of September. The last time she was here Ezra was only a little four month old so it was quite difficult to do anything besides sit around the house. She had higher hopes for this trip and we mostly delivered. I would have liked to have done more with her, but we still had to do school and work and well, life.

It's a good thing our parents weren't busy and were able to take her to all sorts of fun places, like Spearfish Canyon. That weekend in September the fall colors were 90 percent full so their timing couldn't have been more perfect. 

I stole a few of Stephanie's photos...

Of course they had to visit Roughlock Falls where Stephanie and Steve were married in 2011. I really wish I could have gone up with them. I worked this day, a Saturday, and even though we were slammed half the day, there were still plenty of people left in the area to drive up to Spearfish Canyon. My folks and Stephanie were surrounding by masses of people. 

And finally, she hiked up to see Devil's Bathtub, which we did last fall. 

A few days later, they visited Sylvan Lake and Custer State Park, which we haven't visited in three years since we first moved back.

All that to say, we did do one thing with Stephanie outside of the house (and shopping). She took us to Lower Hippie Hole!

After some of our hikes last fall, Stephanie suggested we do this one since it would be perfect for the kids. I sort of forgot about it, and besides I wasn't sure how to find it. 

The kids had fun throwing endless rocks into the water.

So, Hippie Hole is a well known and very popular local spot for cliff jumping into Battle Creek. I went once in high school and have always wanted to go back. But this location, Lower Hippie Hole, is just like it sounds. It's a small waterfall in the same creek a couple miles south of the above mentioned cliff jumping pool.

You drive about 5.3 miles from Keystone east on Highway 40. At the bottom of a large steep hill, there's a turn off on the left just before a bridge over Iron Creek. There's a sign next to the parking lot that says either "Entering" or "Leaving National Forest." I just can't remember which, though it's probably Entering. You park there in the lot and at the far eastern end of the lot is the beginning of a trail. Hike north along Battle Creek about 20 minutes and you'll reach Lower Hippie Hole. 

We saw some hobby gold prospectors on our way up there - pretty cool. 

It's a nice little spot. I thought the water would be too cold to swim so I didn't pack swimsuits. Wish I had though. It was a hot day.

I took Snap as far as we could down this path along the ledge before we ran into a granite wall. Snap wanted to roam but he never would have come back. The is about the exact stop Ezra fell into later...

The only bummer of the place was this spray paint. Pretty sure they weren't talking about chickens.  Why do some kids have to be such stinkin punks?

Noah and I climbed over the rock wall to check out the waterfall. The force of the falls have scooped out the pool so you can jump into it, like Stephanie has done with her husband and friends. It's at least 6 feet deep with no sharp rocks so it would be fun and safe to jump here.

Here's proof from back in 2010 that Stephanie has been here before, jumped and lived to tell the tale. There was one photo of her jumping but this one of Steve was the most impressive. 

Noah and especially Evie got soaked so I doubly wished I had brought their suits. Noah looks like a flamingo!

Throwing rocks.

Terry took a turn over there as well.

People have added to this rock dam over the years according to Stephanie.

Talking to daddy.

Terry's view of us.

Splash! You can see how she got soaked.

Samuel liked hanging out on the rocks.

Ezra was a little too reckless but we managed to keep him from falling in until the very end. He had run along the short ledge where I had taken Snap earlier. I grabbed him (Ezra) and was walking behind him on the way back to the beach but neglected to hold his hand and he fell off the little ledge, plop, right into the water! 

Stephanie had been giving me a hard time about how having a good family size comparison photo so she took some photos for us here.

It was a bit bright for photos, but they still turned out good. Thanks Stephers!

What a pretty place.

Disperse!

Terry and I went on a five mile run that morning (since we were training for a marathon relay we were a part of October 4) and Terry was not feeling well at all. His face says it all. Poor Terry. He was coming back down with a cold he hadn't quite kicked. The training must have aggravated it.

We thought it was funny how Samuel was drinking out of my camelback.

Just chilling out.

Ezra's follow through.

I didn't bring a camera so the only photo proof I had that Stephanie was even there is this photo Terry took. I don't know when I'll see her again, but we have started an envelope to slowly save up some money so maybe I can go on my own and visit her.