Marigolds, Ladybugs, and Calendula

As much as I long to spend every day working away in the garden, that just isn't my reality at this point in life. Teri works with plants all week long so I think it especially fabulous when she's willing to spend a day off toiling with yard and garden tasks!  We have your basic urban, organic, cottage garden.  No perfect lawn or easy-care hedges.  In fact, since we can't be out there fighting pests and weeds every day, we try to take advantage of what tricks we know to keep things thriving and healthy: a combination of herbs and companion plantings, lots of compost, organic slug bait and hundreds of ladybugs!

Teri and I have some shared favorites--we both love calendula and marigolds so, despite the fact that they are not your smell-good plants, we have them tucked in and around all sorts of things.  They thrive during the dry summers here and do a decent job of attracting good stuff and warding off bad stuff. We also plant as many nastursiums as we can find homes for and delight in the bright, sturdy flowers! Nothing seems to want to eat any of those flowers.  Teri likes big, fluffy flowers and I like

ones that are a bit on the wild side--no fuss.  Now that I write this, I can see why we were attracted to each other!                

Gardening with the wedding in mind has added a fun twist.  I think it has definitely got us out there in the yard more as a couple and the garden is responding.  I have never really gardened with any one else before (except my kids) and I'm finding that I really love it.  Earlier today, when Teri was mowing and trimming and I was using the weed eater, I was amazed at how quickly we could tackle our entire good-sized yard.  Then, on a trip to Gray's Nursery to purchase our packet of ladybugs (we got some last year and while some stayed and had little aligator ladybug larvae babies, we have some aphids on the roses that could use a good ladybug infestation so we decided to do it again this year), we wandered through and it was Teri (yes, she likes to tell people that I am the gardening addict) who plopped some plants into our basket to add to the increasingly-crowded beds.

So, the garden is reasonably happy, and as we head into June, Teri and I are actually enjoying the time that we are spending out among the veggies and the bugs--even if the pending celebration is motivating us to do more than we might normally be inclined to do!