Home Improvement

For those of us who love to garden, garden design is a subject near and dear to our hearts. When the winter months deprive you of the chance to roll up your sleeves and dig some dirt or tend the flowers, nothing can stop you from poring through the seed and plant catalogs, dreaming of spring. Plans to put in a cutting bed or create a mini-field of perennial wildflowers dance in your head like sugarplums, full of fun and promise. Without a cohesive plan for your planting adventures, you may end up with a garden design that’s not as pleasing as you’d like.

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My husband and I moved into a really nice neighborhood that had mature trees and lots of privacy. We never even stopped to think about all of the leaves that would be covering our yard once fall rolled around. However, once fall arrived, the leaves didn’t just daintily fall to the ground, they attacked in armies. We spent our first fall weekends shoving leaves in bag after bag. I wasn’t thrilled. Our backs ached, our blisters bled and we were ready to cut down all of the trees in our vicinity. Then, I watched an elderly gentleman in my neighborhood put all of his leaves onto neat piles using a leaf blower. I had never even contemplated getting such a mode of modern technology but suddenly, it had neon flashing signs all around it. I knew that before the next fall, we’d be getting a leaf blower. And we did.

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