Add Some Color to Your Sunday Scaries 🌸

Mother’s Day weekend is pretty synonymous with flowers, so it’s only appropriate we spent a good chunk of our time playing in our flower (and vegetable beds). 

Jim has been lovingly caring for starts that are becoming ready to plant, and I’ve been enjoying the pops of color starting to emerge in our perennial beds we planted last year, thanks to some April rains that, indeed, did bring May flowers. 

Flower gardening is a new hobby for me. My mom is a big flower gardener, and somehow none of that transferred. For most of my life, I’ve considered myself someone with a black thumb. 😂

Probably because:

A. I didn’t have a place to do it, and
B. I didn’t have a reason to care

Now, I find it’s a great way to spend a summer evening, complete with a sense of accomplishment in seeing things I planted last year coming back stronger and more vibrant. 

🤷 Who knew? 

We’ve also got a retreat here this weekend (teaser!), so everything got a little extra attention. 😉 

1️⃣ Sometimes the Right Setup Changes Everything

I’m still the same old will-kill-a-house-plant person, but with space outside (and trusted irrigation), it turns out, my interests have changed. And, so has my ability to make a green thing flourish! 

Turns out, I wasn’t not a flower person. I just didn’t have the setup. 

Given the right conditions, a little encouragement from friends, and some ChatGPT action to help make sure I purchase flowers I have the lowest likelihood of killing, I have a fun new hobby that also makes our house look even more welcoming. 

Win. Win! 

💡 Lesson: Don’t write something off before you’ve actually tried it. 

2️⃣ You Don’t Have to Know What You’re Doing to Start

Enter: Hilary, my neighbor, who has been incredibly helpful in:

• telling me what’s a flower

• what’s a weed

• what I’m about to accidentally kill

(still very much a work in progress)

She even gifted us some of the stuff that got these garden beds rolling! 

It’s one of the things I love most about our garden beds: a lot of it came from friends and family. In addition to Hilary’s contributions, we have Phlox from our other neighbor Parvin (I call them Foster’s Phlox because she gifted them and we planted them on his last weekend with us a few months after we moved into the house. RIP, Little Buddy 🐕). 

There are also a few gifts from PA my mom and dad brought us when they visited a few years ago. 

This whole flower garden thing didn’t start because I knew what I was doing. I guess it didn’t even start because I wanted it to. I started because I had someone nearby who did, and then I just couldn’t help but see all the potential and color it! 

💡 Lesson: You don’t need expertise—you just need a place to start (and maybe a Hilary).

3️⃣ Just Because You Can’t See It Yet Doesn’t Mean Nothing’s Happening

We got some good rain over the past few weeks, which was a welcome change after an almost no-snow winter and oddly warm (hot!) early spring. 

As you can imagine, suddenly things started popping up.

We have orange, yellow, purple, pink, and lilac colors all in bloom, with lots more on the way as the buttercup-colored Columbine buds are screaming to come out. 

Of course, we can’t forget the casualties. 

RIP red yarrow. 🌹😆 

Turns out, that’s just part of the deal. Which, of course, means a trip back to the nursery to fill in the gaps, and maybe add a little more color while I’m at it. 

💡 Lesson: Not everything’s going to make it, and that’s part of figuring things out.  

4️⃣ A Little Color Goes a Long Way

One of the things we try to do here is plant native and drought-tolerant species because, well, it’s Colorado and there is no water. But even with the goal to stay “local,” there are so many options. 

And, it’s wild how much a few flowers change the feel of a space.

When we bought our house almost four years ago, the outdoor spaces were pretty barren. There wasn’t a speck of green other than some half-dead grass, and the stub of a raspberry bush that Jim has brought back to life (and gave us 20 lbs of berries last year). 

Same yard. Same house.

Completely different energy.

If there’s one thing Jim and I love, it’s making our house feel like a home. 

💡 Lesson: Small changes in your environment can change how everything feels.

5️⃣ It’s Really Hard to Scroll Your Phone While Gardening

My screen time has gone down by almost 90 minutes a day since we’ve hit longer days, warmer evenings, and a project that keeps my hands in the dirt. 

I’ve loved playing in the dirt since I was a kid, and even though I get plenty dirty enough while out on the trails 🚵, there’s something different about working soil, planting living things, and seeing them not die. 😂

It’s a great reason to get myself out of the “one more thing” technology loop at the end of the day, and get outside! 

💡 Lesson: If you want to be more present, put yourself somewhere your phone doesn’t make sense.

6️⃣ You Care More About What You Pay Attention To

Lots of people around here have gardeners who plant their flowers for them. And let me tell you, they’re perfectly curated. 

I envy the beds along the sidewalk that are popping with color from late March until the end of fall, but I’m also proud of the work I’ve done to establish them myself. 

There aren’t many things that feel as good as learning something new and seeing it actually work. 

💡 Lesson: You care more about the things you actually pay attention to. 

7️⃣ Sometimes You Just Find Something You Like

I never thought I’d be someone who cared about flowers.

And yet… here we are. 

Turns out, given the right space, a little time, and a few things that don’t die immediately, it’s actually something I enjoy.

What can you let yourself enjoy this week? 🤨

💡 Lesson: You don’t have to overthink it — sometimes you just find something you like.

Maybe your Sunday Scaries don’t need a full overhaul.

👉 Maybe they just need a little more color.

Or at the very least… a trip to the nursery when things don’t go right the first time. 😉

Your Friend and Coach,
Angie