Where did the summer go...?

I am a terrible blogger. There, I admit it.

I might even be a terrible gardener. During the summer, when I had a spare moment, it was after dark. As a result, I only just got back into my garden 3 weekends ago. When I did wade into it, the front border was more a weedgarden - the crabgrass had all but taken over. All I can say is Thank-god for hardy perennials and plant sales.

I can't blame my 8-month or four-year old for the neglect. Not this time. Why not? A woman who blogs on gardening not in her garden?? The answer: We built a deck. To be precise, I had very little to do with the actual building of it -- my husband did the heavy lifting -- 80 40-lb bags of concrete to be specific. And that with a bad back (understatement). Many others contributed as well - thanks go to Dad, brother and brother-in-law, for (at the very least) 6 4-foot posts dug, three lifts of that door in the photo below, and 800 lbs of construction detritus removed respectively. I stand by the "We" though, since without me to make sure our two little darlings did not, either, A) slice off a digit (or worse) on one of daddy's power tools, or B)stand too close to a swinging hammer, the deck would not have gotten done. I removed said offspring every weekend, almost all weekend, which was reflected by the garden. Here is what our back yard looked like before....

and what it looks like now...

And the side view before (jeez, it almost looks like we had grass back there)...

...and after...

How did we get heyah from theyah? From the end of July until this past weekend we lived in a construction zone, but it was worth it. We extended our living area (during 2 seasons) by 300 square feet. We moved the gas grill from the front porch - with our cooking schedule on display to the neighborhood - to the relative privacy of the back yard. The living room is now opened up literally and figuratively, which expands the view of the Nashua river that we fell in love with when we bought the house. It changes (in a good way) the air flow when the door/windows are open. All in all, it brings our 1870s farmhouse into the 21st century. The bad news is, now I want more...changes, modernity, etc. We are talking about paint next year - but that's another post.

The deck also brings new gardening challenges. It's on the North side of the house so plants by the stairs (unless they are tall) will get little direct sunlight, but containers on the deck itself will get full sun for much of the day. Nevertheless, I can't wait to plant stuff out there!!! I bought some mums today, and while I'm not a huge fan of mums, they are dependable and colorful for the season. It also makes me want to move the playset, but that is another post too... Stay tuned, on my next post I will return to blogging about my lovelies that didn't get killed despite (in spite of?) my neglect.