Monday, April 9, 2012

A Shade Garden Under the Slide

My grandson Landon and I spent most of the day Friday outside. His school was closed to observe Good Friday, so he came to my house to stay with me while his parents were working. He loves to be outside, and he calls himself my "yard man" because he likes to help with any work around the yard.

We have a tree house swing set with a slide for the grandchildren in our back yard. On Friday Landon looked it over and suggested that we "fix it up" around the slide. The area underneath the slide wasn't too pretty. I agreed that it needed some improvement.


Most of the day it is shaded under the slide. There are several trees nearby, and the slide itself casts a shadow, so if we were going to grow anything there it was going to have to be shade friendly plants.

The first thing we did was to dig out all the grass and weeds. That was the hardest part.

Then we made a trip to Lowe's, where we bought gardening soil, mulch, and plants.We read all the plant tags and carefully selected several that are shade lovers.





Landon helped by hauling all our supplies to the back yard in his gator.

We planted a Hosta Plantain Lily, several Caladiums, and a number of Impatiens in our shade garden. All the plants are now mulched, watered, and ready to grow.



I think Landon and I used our Friday play time in a very constructive way by "fixing up" the area underneath his slide. I'm looking forward to watching our shade garden grow this year.


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12 comments:

  1. What a creative idea! We used to have our sandbox under the slide! Have a great day

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  2. Lucky you to have a Yard Man! Enjoy the new plants:@)

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  3. Whaat a sweet yard man you have, Anita! He looks so cute on his gator!!

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  4. Sounds like a great day together. I would like to invite you to share at our new link party Happy Family Times at http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2012/04/happy-family-times-3.html. We are hoping to inspire more family times with it.

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  5. This is a very good use of your playtime with lasting, lovely results.

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  6. I think you have a fine "yard man". Tell him that I wish I had a vehicle like that to move all my garden supplies around. Be sure to show us the progress in yours and Landon's shade garden. Thanks for joining the party.----- Shannon

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  7. You are the best Gramma EVER!!!! What a lucky Grandson you have. And what a great idea to plant a shade garden!

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  8. I wish he lived near me! I cold use the help! LOL! And I love what you both did with that area. Very nice and what a great way to spend a day with your grandson. I used to garden with my children when they were young and they all still are "gardeners".

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  9. What a great idea! Lol, our "under the slide area" is a disaster.... if I ever get my energy back, I would love to do something like this in our yard.

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  10. Is your yard man for hire? He is so cute! Love the flowers, is that hosta? Loss mine to the drought of 2011!
    Hugs, Lynn

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  11. I LOVE the name Landon!!! What a great idea to have shade garden!!!

    BTW, you can link this up at my party! I would love it!
    http://thediydreamer.blogspot.ca/2012/04/from-dream-to-reality-linky-party-11.html

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  12. Your yard man is such a cutie and he's handy to have around! I love the projects you do together...brings back great memories with my Gran. I shared this on my FB page tonight. Thanks for sharing!!

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