True confession: I haven’t done one thing in my garden since September 17th. I didn’t plant a single bulb. I didn’t pull one weed. I didn’t snip, clip or tug.

Nothing.

I could easily blame it on my septoplasty surgery on September 18th, and while that is partially true, it isn’t the full story.

I wore the hell out.

I tired of it all.

I didn’t fight to find as much as a minute of gardening time.

This is typical this time of year for us hardcore gardeners. We’ve spent months on end in the dirt, digging and pulling and tweaking. We’ve spent hours planning. We’ve spent more time than that self-loathing because of our gardening failures.

Oh, maybe that’s just me.

We get tired and we wear ourselves out.

But I feel like I’m beyond the normal burnout. I’m physically worn out but even more than that, I’m mentally drained. I’m tired of fighting the deer. I’m tired of the soil never draining. I’m tired of all that I’ve built the past 13 years.

Looking back even further, I didn’t place one online order last fall/winter. I only purchased a handful of plants in total in 2018 and I made only a few trips to my local garden centers.

I’ve threatened to stop this blog a few times since it was introduced back in February of 2010. Each time I took it all back within days. It’s actually comical if you locate those old posts in the archives.

I’m not looking to bring this blog to a close. I’m not even looking to make any major changes. I just needed to voice the fact that I’ve been burned out. When I do that I typically get a jolt of energy.

So I’m selfishly using this post to pump myself up. I’m banking on this to get me back into the plant catalogs and back to shopping once again (cha-ching). And more than anything else, I want to jump back into my favorite gardening task of all: planning.

And I’m going to do that by showing you (and me) all the progress I’ve made over the years. A reminder of where it all started not so long ago. A peek back to the blank canvas and where things have progressed to in the garden’s current state.

So my apologies for my narcissism. My apologies for the following self-congratulations.

I need it and I hope you understand that.

Thank you.

I searched through all of the photo I’ve ever taken and found that I’ve only once snapped a pic of the garden bed directly toward the front of my house. It’s the one below, taken on a  cold winter’s day back in 2010.

While the “after” photo that follows it isn’t from the same angle, you can see how things have changed in this spot.

This series is looking from my driveway into the backyard. What was once a stone-filled  driveway and a whole lot of nothing, is now a paved basketball court and lots of mature plants.

A super narrow bed was expanded numerous times over the years and filled with lots and lots of perennials.

The wooden planter and raised bed have since fallen apart and none of the plants in the first photo are with us any longer. But hot damn, what an improvement. Even in the quality of the photography. Ha.

That same area of the garden from a different angle. A River Birch was added and lots of perennials and grasses.

Shield your eyes with the blurry first pic. My apologies for the dizzying experience but I needed to give you the first so you can soak in the beauty of the second shot.

The only plants to survive the years are the red Heuchera along the front of the bed. And I’m happy to report that my photo cropping skills have improved over the years. Check out my camera-wielding arm in the shadows.

Another blurry pic, this time of my front walkway. That is followed by the new and improved from both spring and fall. Go me!

I’m most proud of the fact that I never moved the Thuja (Arborvitae) ‘Rheingold’ and the Clethra (Summersweet) ‘Hummingbird’ over the years and I’m happy to see how well they’ve matured; even if they still can’t hide all the piping, the hose and the filthy foundation.

I apparently had no issue taking photos during the height of sunlight in the garden. Another lesson learned over the years. Here’s to more garden bed expansion.

Add more grasses and all will be fine.

Fill it with nothing but plants and there will be no opportunity for weeds to emerge. Oh yeah, and arborvitaes are ugly and do not mature well.