Gifts of gardening

    The last few days it has cooled off enough for me to return to puttering in the garden. I really love digging in the dirt and watching the things I plant grow.  It truly feeds my soul in so many ways.  I love handling the life of the plants, I love the smells of the garden and the dirt.  I hear and see God in the living things that make up my garden.  The exercise is also no doubt helpful!  

    Though it is an expensive hobby, David felt it was worth it to spend a bit so I could continue playing in the yard, because it is so life-giving to me.  Here is the result of the last few days:

     For those of you who are looking closely, you probably notice that the back part of this middle area of the yard still is pretty weedy but also bare in terms of chosen plants.  You might also see that the ring of rocks that surrounds this middle area is also still full of dry weeds.  

    The lessons: first, it takes time to grow and put together a garden.  The lantana that you see in this garden area I've been planting over the last 6 years.  I filled it in now with 16 additional plants.  There is still the back area, but it really doesn't get much sun, unlike the areas I filled the last few days.  So the kinds of plants I will need for that area are different.  Additionally, I have struggled the entire time we've lived here with knowing what to do with that ring of rocks that surrounds that middle area.  I've put paving stones/flagstones on top of it which makes it into a nice walkway, but I can't figure out how to clean up the weeds that have infested this rock ring.  My neighbor hired someone to do her yard who can pull out all the rocks, lay down ground cover fabric again, put in pulverized granite... all which sounds perfect.  I could then put the flagstones back on top and have a nice walkway around that middle garden area.  However, at this point in time, the cost is prohibitive.  Again, first lesson is patience.  I need to trust that these things will get done and not all of it has to be done today.  

    But the second lesson for me is to rely on the wisdom of others.  Do any of you have ideas about what I can do to deal with that weed-infested rock ring that I could do myself and for minimal cost?  I am happy to put in the work.  The area that you see in the pictures, I've not only done the planting but also done the sheet mulching around all of it.  Labor-intensive, and I frankly LOVE doing that work.  

    (As a side note, I won't use herbicides: I don't like putting poison in the ground and potentially poisoning the animals (and water).  So I am open to suggestions but only if they do not include poisons.)