Butterfly Garden

butterfly garden

 

I'm not much of a gardener but I've always enjoyed looking at beautiful flowers.  Moving to Georgia opened my eyes to a whole new world of gorgeous gardens (and a whole lot of pollen).

 

When we moved into our home the landscaping was only so-so and the backyard had this 300 square foot hill of weeds.  I've always had big dreams of making a garden out of it and since Millie passed a butterfly garden in her honor felt so perfect.  Only it's a big chunk of space and A LOT of weeds and therefore a task I could not tackle alone.  

 

I happened to be home in Wisconsin for Mother's Day and my mom gifted me her skills of planting flower pots for me when she came to visit in a few weeks.

 

So when she got to GA we picked out flowers together and she arranged the most beautiful pots for me!

And since gardening is a passion of my mother's she designed and implemented the plan to fix the backyard weedy mess!!

 

It took all of a Saturday and all hands on deck but the transformation was incredible!!

 

THE WEEDY BEFORE...

TILLING UP THE LAND...

PLANTING AND TRANSFERRING...

(hard working puppy taking a much needed break)...

ALL PLANTS IN PLACE...

LAYING WEED BARRIER & MULCH...

FINAL PRODUCT...

I am head over heels in love with the beautiful transformation that was the weedy hill of our backyard.  I am so thankful for my Mom, Dad and husband for helping to make this space into something so special.  Mom says it's Millie's butterfly garden but baby brother's garden too since he was in my belly while we made it!

Bonus flower...

We received many beautiful flowers and plants for Millie's funeral last year and I did my very best to plant as many as I could outdoors, not really knowing if any were meant for the outdoors and/or if any would return again.  

Well early this spring, as I was planting bulbs, I ran into one of those plant bulbs I had planted last spring.  Within a few weeks this little beauty sprouted...

The most special thing is that we never received any pink lilies for Millie's funeral, only white ones.  It seems this once white lily turned pink in honor of our sweet baby girl in heaven!