Since the trees were removed, the building has started. Digging out the hole, footings, walls, backfill. Lots of big equipment and excitement.

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The old garage lost the side wall and the roof, and the floor was jack-hammered out. Then there was a slight mishap, and the front wall was gone too.

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And of course, then the driveway had to go too.

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We also had to extend the water line, and the gas line, and the hydro line, so there was some more digging.

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I’m hoping the digging is over. This trench through the lawn looks bad, but it cleaned up pretty good. The floors will be poured soon, and then we can start with the walls!

As colourful as this looks, it doesn’t make me that happy.

I didn’t plant most of these. A few years ago I dug out nearly all the phlox, and left only small plants. Now, they are overtaking the bed.

When they are done blooming, I’m going to dig them all out and get rid of them. It’s going to leave some big gaps I think, but I have some extra plants here and there to fill in, and the ones hidden by the phlox will get some space too.

The tall plants in the back corner are Joe Pye weed, and weed it is. Way too big and ugly and well, it’s gotta go too.

Guess I’ve got some work ahead of me.

This has been a great growing season for my cut flower garden.

The dahlias are beautiful and varied, with mostly pinks and purples.

I pinched the cosmos plants early, and they have provided lots of stems.

Statice is a great filler in bouquets.

This was the first year I started this celosia cockscomb with good success. Good stalks for cutting, striking colour, long lasting in the house. Yellow, orange, red, and a fuchsia tone.

And this wheat type celosia, also used as a filler in my bouquets.

And of course zinnia! I learned about pinching the small plants, and the results are big bushy plants, with lots of long stems for cutting.

Only 5 of the lisianthus germinated, and I potted them up together. I would love to have rows of these, with lots of colours. So lovely.

So this was the cutting results this morning.

Three bouquets for today.

Agapanthus are blooming.

The plumbago is so beautiful. Such a gorgeous blue.

Clematis are finished blooming, but seed heads are amazing.

Colourful phlox and zinnias.

This magnolia always has a few more blooms later in the summer.

Sedums prepping for their show.

Trees are still growing.

Some trees are not just trees. They are stories and memories and markers.

These two catalpas were given to me as tiny seedlings by a dear gardening friend.

Our children started this shade master locust from seed about 23 years ago.

For our 25th Wedding anniversary in 2008, we gave all the guests tiny blue spruce seedlings. These were some extras we had that survived. The first 9 or 10 years seem quite slow, but then growth is exponential, and these have really taken off in the last few years.

I started this star magnolia from seed over 20 years ago. I think it took 9 years to bloom, with about 13 blooms the first year. A big piece of the willow tree came down and sheared nearly half of it off one year, but it has recovered nicely.

When our children’s school celebrated in 2000, they gave out pine seedlings. Great tree for Christmas greens.

For several years, we were able to receive free trees from the township. They were bare root, six foot sticks, usually maple of some sort. We got a couple of crimson maples for colour, and this red maple, which is just ablaze with colour in the fall.

Two cedars my parents had in pots, and they needed a home.

Over the years we have watched our tiny trees grow into maturity, giving shade, and colour, beauty and life to the garden. Each one has a special place and purpose in the garden, adding to the stories and memories.

So this happened.

No, not a tornado. Just a chainsaw. We are planning to expand the garage out in that direction, and so the trees needed to go.

Doug started by removing all the shrubbery underneath.

The little group of trees looked quite nice when it was cleaned up. Maybe we should have done that a long time ago.

And then the trees came down one by one.

One of the first trees felled took out one of the cedars as you can see. But after that the technique was perfected, and the trees fell where intended, without further incident.

Some of the trees were pretty tall. One measured out at about 75′. Now we are getting used to a lot more sun on the house and in the garden. I’m always sad to see trees cut down, but we didn’t really have a choice in this case.

This was one of the first beds that we planted twenty-some years ago.

It became the place where some of the rejected plants were planted.

And the plants that spread, or weren’t exactly my favourites anymore.

As you can see, it had become overgrown and rather ugly. I made the decision to tear it all out, with trying to save a few special plants. So we started digging by hand, but it was way too hard, and way too much.

Time to call in the machinery, as in, the friend with a mini back hoe.

I tried to salvage a few pieces of plants by taking them out first. As the back hoe pulled up stuff, we cleaned out as many roots and remains as we could. I left in a lilac tree, a red twig dogwood, a nest spruce, a golden cedar, and a couple of spireas. At the far end there is also a crabapple tree, and honeysuckle bush.

We got some composted manure for it, and rented a tiller to mix it all in. I bought a few golden cedars, and replanted whatever I had saved.

That’s where we left it last fall.

This spring, everything I planted came up. As did many daffodils that got tossed about in the soil, and thousands of baby onions? Maybe they were in the manure? I don’t know, but they are not fun to remove.

I have since added in dahlias, day lilies, monkshood, and some annuals. More perennials to be added in as they become available from other areas of the garden. For now, I’m trying to keep it weeded, and trying to get rid of all those onions!

We have a narrow gardening bed in our driveway. Up to this year it has been a shady area, but we had to cut down a large maple tree. However the hostas don’t seem to mind. They adapt to the sun as they grow in.

I had given this area very little attention for a few years, and so there was a large section of it overgrown with sweet woodruff. I dug out 3 buckets of the stuff, trying to get every bit that comes up in the middle of the hostas.

I looked around the garden to find some smaller hostas to move here. I had one new heuchera I had just purchased. And I moved one daylily here to see how it would do.

I think these new hostas will get a bit of sunburn initially, but next year they should adapt. A bit more weeding, some new compost here and there, a sweep up, and this area will now look much better for the rest of the summer.