Victory Is Mine!

I am a rock star, plain and simple. This morning I victoriously attacked and conquered two projects that seemed completely beyond my individual capability and now I'm about to have a hot cup of tea and slice of apple pie to celebrate!
The hedge in the front of our house had one bush croak. A month ago I pulled scraggly branches of the dead plant out and laid them unceremoniously behind the other shrubs, leaving a lovely bald spot. Today, yes, today I went to Walmart for some gardening supplies and our wonderful local nursery, McIntire's, and got another boxwood bush (I didn't even know the name of it, so that's another new thing learned!) Granted, and oddly enough, there are two different types of bushes in our front hedge. One is boxwood, but unfortunately the ones on either side of the hole were not. Oh well! It's a complete reflection of my personality, and I planted it anyway. AND had my first close encounter with a snake as I dug the hole. It was a little guy, so no big deal.
Grow baby, grow!
I churned the dirt around the larger front tree and added compost. I will research what I should plant there and will soon have it filled with lush greenery and flowers.
The smaller tree I placed cypress mulch around to cover up the gross looking, bald dirt that had formed into clay.
An anniversary gift from my dear Anissa, I was set with a new pair of gardeners gloves and this fabulous gardener's tool tote! I planted a pumpkin seedling and a sprig of mint I had transplanted from the one on my kitchen sill.
In September I beautified the front walk, adding fuchsia skullcap (left row), a rosemary bush, butterfly vine and chrysanthemum then covered the dirt with cypress mulch. I added the filigree border last week and love how it clearly divides the walk from the yard. Now the trick-or-treaters won't trample the flowers like last time.

My greatest and most satisfying accomplishment. This section of our fence fell down after some heavy winds. After examining it I figured it was a two person job and I should either wait for Brian to come home or have it fixed. After consulting him, we decided that as long as it didn't cause problems we'd wait till he got home to repair it. Yesterday as I was out gardening in the morning, Savannah realized (after over a week with it down) she could get out of the back yard. Duh. Last night when the neighbor brought her back (she was hanging out with them in their garage, "Hey, whatcha doin? Can I come over and play? Got a ball??") I realized action must be taken.
Armed with a hammer and Wilder safely sleeping away, I knocked out several nails to reuse, repositioned the section, hammered away and repaired that fence! One of my prouder moments, let me tell you.
Proof. I have a green thumb. And a hammer and some growing biceps. There are times I feel like I actually live in my little dream cottage in the woods where we live by the sweat of our brow and the fruits of our labor. This was one of those times. Like I said at the beginning, now it's time for a celebration. Bring on the tea and pie!

Gosh, I'm good.