I went into the 2024 garden season saying three things:

1. I’m not spending much money
2. I don’t have time to do much gardening with my younger daughter graduating high school and my older daughter graduating college.
3. I’ll be lucky to get all of the gardens mulched with one daughter leaving for college and the other leaving for Laos.

My back garden was in a leap season.

Meaning, I did quite a bit in the past 3 years and sleep, creep, leap put me squarely on it being a leap season for some of my plants.

One thing I had done in 2022 was I decided to dismantle the wooden playset in our backyard and a large sandbox. It was long overdue. My kids are 25, 22, 18 and 17. The wooden playset was taken down in sections. I tore down one side that had a tower and slide one year. I kept the frame of the playset’s tower and used it for plants. I left the main swingset and hung a bench swing. Can see some of the parts in the background and the overgrown weed trees. I added a fire ring, so we could pull up lawn chairs or sit on the bench swing.

I felt sad dismantling the wooden playset.

It was really in poor shape and the kids are all older. I kept thinking about my oldest son in this photo. Our first year in our home. If you had asked me back then if my son would become who he is today, I would have said, but he told me he was going to be a pizza guy!

The bench swing lasted 2 years and then the hook came loose from the rotting wood. It was time to just let go. But I needed something to fill the glaring void. Not just in the yard, but my two older kids were no longer living at home and were away at college. Nothing really prepared me for how I’d feel.

So then dismantling the sandbox.

There was so much sand from the dismantled sandbox. I remember when I had it all delivered. Ever Google how to get rid of sand from a sandbox? One suggestion is a handful at a time! In our case, it was one wheelbarrow at a time. My mom and stepdad came to visit and I am so thankful they visited. My gardens are my happy place. I do all of my deep thinking and work all of my emotions into my yard. Having my mom with me as we removed the sandbox they helped build years and years ago was a beautiful thing. They helped me so much.

There were rotted logs from an old tree we had cut down. There were so many weeds and old raspberry bushes and a lilac bush that was close to being completely dead.

Once all the sand was removed, I planted a new garden. I’m not sure I have photos of it before I divided and planted all of the hostas. If I do, I’ll update this. For now, here’s the first few plantings of divided hostas. The sand was removed and new soil was added.

This

Became this the same year

Then this in 2023

Then this in 2024

Taking down the old in order to create something new was the most alive I have felt in years.

This in 2022

Became this

Then this

Then this in 2023 (lasagna method with cardboard)

Then this the same year

Then this. Poor hostas look so bad.

Then this in 2024

We also chopped down two crabapple trees in the side yard in 2021

I don’t know if I have any photos of the actual cutting down of the trees, but Gabe cut them down with a chainsaw. Every branch was cut and hauled to the curb and some was burned in the firepit or put in our yard waste bin. One tree was located where that ring of hostas are.

That became this last year.

And where the other crabapple tree was

Became this last year

I also planted a Dogwood sapling.

Then I removed the frame from the wooden playset’s tower and moved the plants and bulbs. I left the apple tree. I planted 2 apple trees in 2023.

My next post will show part 2 of the wrap-up and progress of 2024.