July 2026 – Growing Wildflowers, Vegetables and Loving my Pond!

July 2026 many of you have been asking for pictures of my pond and I’m finally to a point where I can share without being too embarrassed lol It was kind of a disaster for weeks. If you were wondering: NO this L-shaped ditch is not the pond I had envisioned. I, unfortunately, was not here when it was dug and apparently this is what the guy translated when I said, “A kidney shaped pond behind and around my garden.” I was confident I had explained it clearly but obviously our ideas of “kidney shaped” were very different.

It gave me the headache of the pond liner situation. I could have spent around $4,000 on a liner that covered the entire thing (EEK!) but I decided to spend $700 instead and take my chances with having to create a seam.

Blessedly we got plenty of rain but that meant I didn’t get my seam done for weeks!

And one thing I had not at all anticipated was the wind taking my pond liner completely away forever. So I had every outdoor thing that I owned up here that had any kind of weight to it. It was ugly. It drove me crazy.

It was ridiculous. It was five shovels, two post hole diggers, any bucket or bin that would hold water for weight, two sledge hammers, some logs, a yard cart, even a bench and that wasn’t all.

July 2026 – we needed the rain – I didn’t complain!

Once I finally did get my seam done and the pond filled I had to do something in the interim to keep it from being a death trap so I added boards as well to act as ramps.

So it was not exactly the idyllic wildlife pond of my dreams for quite awhile…

I had to get something to tack my liner down ASAP. I ordered 4″ landscape edging and 200 8″ steel landscape spikes. So that took care of tacking everything down but not at all the issue of dying critters. I had to find something that they could use to climb out of the pond but even several “ramps” didn’t feel like enough.

Ideally I wanted something along the entire edge that they could use to climb out on… Not sure when the idea occurred to me and I’m not 100% sure yet if I love it or even like it but I ended up landing on Astroturf.

I tacked it down right along the edge, over the liner, under the landscape edging, using the 8″ spikes. It worked! And I was finally able to trim my liner and clear the clutter out my yard.

The Astroturf is all wrinkly etc. and that I will be working on. Also, no, I’m not really fond of how its “floating” out from the sides, but my very first frog let me know that he really likes it and he’s making this his home so I absolutely CANNOT bother little Kermit!

So I’m at an impasse for now, double sided pond tape will hold it down in the future but I will have to wait until the pond is nearly empty for that anyway. Another option would be adding something along the Astroturf edge as a weight… so I have some ideas and options.

It is obviously SO FAR FROM DONE at this point lol but it is no longer driving me absolutely insane. You can see I took care of the jungle of stink weed and thistles that were surrounding my garden too. The plan is to extend my mulch around my garden and between my garden and the pond to eliminate this problem entirely. For the outside edge of the pond I’ll be bringing in black dirt to cover all of it and planting it with Bee Lawn seed.

July 2026, My dad mowed my yard this summer according to my wishes which was: as little yard as possible and anything he felt like mowing.

It is not everyone’s cup of tea but I can’t tell you how how good its doing my heart seeing all those wildflowers for the bees and butterflies where Lodi insisted on having lawn. Milkweed grew up and bloomed by my front step and the smell all over my yard is just incredible!

I haven’t had butterflies for YEARS – now they’re all over my property! And my milkweed is crawling with monarch larvae, hoping I’ll spot and get pictures of a chrysalis!

The rain and storms we saw over the first half of July were FIERCE. My little trees were looking wonderful, especially the oaks, and my garden exploded. Unfortunately what followed was two weeks of absolutely brutal heat so I really didn’t get much done on the yard this month.

As a treat to myself though I ran over to the green house on one of their last days and bought some annuals to fill up the gaps in my garden. A few of my herbs didn’t come up and something ate my peas so I had some area for flowers!

Next is to finish my pond edging and then add edging around my garden. Build my flower beds and my compost bin. And then mulch everything and add dirt and seed around the edge of my pond.

July 2026 – Lots still to do!

I’ve always loved water and wished I could live on a lake or (far more ideally) on a river. My first frog was soon joined by many others and toads as well. They sing all evening and it is so glorious – I can actually hear them from my house.

My first meal out of the garden was wonderful, fresh carrots, beats, zucchini and greens beans that I tossed up in my own fresh sage, basil and dill. A little olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven.

It was so good and so pretty I had to take a picture of it!

In other news: I am finally, amazingly, officially, after almost an entire year: DIVORCED from Lodi. He hit me for the last time on August 31st 2025. I have updated my story here for other abuse survivors.

I’m getting everything in the divorce besides his truck. (Which I agreed he could keep.)

My lawyer encouraged me not to settle but, instead, to let this go to the scheduled court date in November as she felt a judge would also award me a cash amount. But I know Lodi wouldn’t pay it and then I would have to take him to small claims court. And then they would likely garnish his wages and then he would likely just work cash jobs.

And then I would end up with exactly what I’m already getting but would likely lose another year to this.

IT IS FINALLY OVER.

You guys know I had already napalmed my home of every last bit of him months ago. What he left behind I had boxed up and its been reminding me of him, every day, in my garage, this entire time. (My lawyer cautioned me to keep it until the divorce was final.) Between the dump and the thrift store it is now gone lol.

My yard is beginning to forget him as well. It will take a little bit more time out here but it really is getting there!

No more reminders. No more divorce looming.

No more anxiety. No more waiting for my lawyer to call.

JULY 2026 MY LIFE AND HOME ARE ENTIRELY MINE AGAIN