Hunting for buried treasure

We are here! Three days of travel, one night of air mattress bed, many boxes unpacked, and on the sixth day there was internet.  We are feeling very at home here in North Carolina. We have fantastic neighbors, one who even came over with his chain saw to help us liberate the gardens. This house we are in was empty for three years and nothing was touched in the gardens.

That daylily up there was a surprise yesterday morning. A beautiful house warming gift.

But finding these little garden gifts is truly like hunting for buried treasure. The good news about living here is that it is lush and green and the soil is beautiful. The bad news is that the vines and weeds and all of the not so lovely things thrive in this environment just as well as the garden treasures. That lovely daylily bloom was just peeking out of that mass of vines and grasses when I first spied it.

 

The side garden at the front of the house looked like this when we first got here. Completely overgrown and very hard to see what was in it. We knew from neighbors that the previous owner loved her garden. So we had high hopes that there would be a lovely garden lurking somewhere beneath it all.

 

A few hours later and lots of sweat and only just the tiniest bit of cursing, I found these beautiful hostas, a viburnum, iris, a hydrangea. I hope that I can help this garden to be happy again.

 

Setting up the studio is in progress. But for now there is nothing like getting my hands in the soil to make me feel connected to my new home. And I feel that given enough sun, water, and tender loving care that the work of the studio will flow from the work in the garden.

Life is good.