Countdown to 100 Days of Growing Food Challenge: Stacey

I was tickled pink when my momma, Stacey, sent in a piece for our count down to the 100 Days of Growing Food Challenge. Growing up, I loved the hodge-podge, slightly overgrown flower beds that surrounded our home. The bursts of colors, textures, and scents carried from early spring through the fall. (Make sure to check out Laura’s story too, here!)

The artwork that goes into managing a flower bed that can surprise and please all throughout the growing season is truly one that she has mastered. Instead of a tightly manicured and maintained space built around outdoor spaces, her garden beds are placed in such away that the lines between structure and nature blur beautifully.

Stacey

“I love growing season. The thought of getting out and getting my hands dirty and watching things wake up from winter excites me. Working in my yard and flower beds is my destress time. It relaxes me. As soon as spring gets here I’m ready to get out the door.

I don’t know if you’d call me a gardener, my type of gardening is not for food. I like working outside in my flower beds in my landscaping. When we bought our home 13 years ago, there was no landscaping at all. When you buy a house, most of you know, there is a lot of expense.

Putting in landscaping and buying things to put in it is not something that was in our budget. I looked over over my options. I decided the best course was to ask my neighbors for cuttings of their flowers and plants. I was looking for things that were free. Also, most importantly I wanted perennial plants. That way the plants will come back every year and all you have to do is keep them thinned out and keep the landscape areas healthy.

When you’re starting from scratch, it’s really hard to say where to start. I just kind of placed things anywhere at first. Then as I added more throughout the growing season or even the next year pictures just comes in my head. I envision how it’s going to look when the plants are in full bloom.

I like many shades of color. In the foliage and in the flowers. I’m not going to say that I have never bought plants to add to my beds, because I have. I did research to find when the plants grow to their best and when they bloom. I wanted plants that would flower at different times throughout the growing season. That way I would have color all the time.

To me, the most rewarding part is that one week in late July to early August when everything is bloomed. The grass is green, all the multi-colored flowers are showing their best smile, and I can sit out in the evenings and see the whole picture.

So beautiful.

I think when you plant because you enjoy the hard work and you get to share it with everyone in some way, you are a gardener. Everyone has their own ideas. This is mine. Hopefully you can find yours.”

Stacey Riley