With Roman spending more and more time in the yard it's that much more incentive to get the grass in the back yard into good shape. We had a major problem with thistles last year and I'm sure we'll continue to wage that war this year. How major can thistles be you might wonder? I kid you not we had thistles that were at least a foot across. Obviously no amount of poison was going to kill those monsters, nor did we want to use it around the dogs and Roman, so we ended up having to dig them out. This left a few good size holes in the lawn that will need to be filled and seeded this year.
To kick off grass growing season I raked the entire yard really well to remove all the dead grass and to rough up the ground so that the grass seed and fertilizer would penetrate more easily. With that done I applied a good layer of Scotts Turf Builder Coated High Traffic Grass Seed to the entire lawn, focusing on the bald or destroyed areas. Bronx is murder on our lawn so I think this seeding business might be a yearly event for our lawn. I followed the seed up with a nice thick layer of CIL Golfgreen Gold lawn fertilizer. We went with this fertilizer because it was on sale, and because it is safe for use around kids and pets. Now it's a matter of keeping it well watered so that the seed can germinate and hopefully grow into a beautiful, lush lawn!
Now on to the job I've been dreading all winter; cleaning up the garden. When we did the final harvest last fall we basically pulled the tomato plants and walked away from the rest because it was so darn rainy and cold. Well I'm paying for that now. The garden was full of weeds and quack grass which was nice enough to stick around to visit me this spring. The only perennials in the garden are the chives, dill and rosemary and asparagus. The chives have already started growing again but there is no sign of the dill (which I'm sure will pop up later) or asparagus, and the rosemary isn't looking so hot. I'm pretty sure when the zombie apocalypse descends upon us the only thing that will survive will be chives.
Luckily the weather cooperated with us and Roman and I got to rock our tank tops and shorts! You didn't think I had to work alone did you? Roman had a blast digging around with the shovel and rake while I did all the heavy lifting. Bronx is already back to his old tricks of hunting birds, which is extremely irritating when you have to listen to him bark all the time but it keeps him busy. If you are our neighbor, I'm sorry!
Of course all work and no play is never fun, so Roman was sure to inject so fun into our work. This is now one of his favorite hiding spots in the yard. I can't imagine it's comfortable to crawl up into a raspberry bush but he seems to thinks it's great!
Once the garden was dug up and weeded I sprinkled in a good layer of CIL Gro Organic garden fertilizer since I had some left over from last year. This stuff worked extremely well last year so I wanted to use it to restore the nutrient content of the soil before we plant this year's garden. Roman loves water and jumped at the chance to be able to water the garden. Unfortunately it appears he is now strong enough to squeeze the handle himself, which is sure to make for some interesting moments this summer...
So this is the plan for the garden this year. I've cut down on the number of tomato plants this year because we had more tomatoes last year than any family in the world could possibly consume. Watch, now that I've said that the tomatoes won't grow at all this year. I've also cut back on the number of parsley and basil plants because I still have a freezer full of fresh herbs from last year. The butternut squash, brussel sprouts and watermelon are all going to be experimental for me this year, but I've heard other people in town have had luck with squash and sprouts so here's hoping! The large empty section on the left side I still haven't quite decided on. I might plant potatoes there this year but I'm not sure. Maybe I'll cruise the vegetable isle in the greenhouse and see what pops out at me.
I must admit I'm a little embarrassed to even post this set of photos. This poor flower bed was horribly neglected last year and the quack grass took over a good portion of it. Since we were already out digging up the garden I figured we might as well tackle the flower bed. Unfortunately the flower bed was worse than I thought and I actually had to look back at my flower bed post from last year to see where the perennials were located. Insert face palm here.
I was having trouble keeping Roman out of the neighbor's sprinklers so I decided to fill the water table for him. No, it wasn't warm enough to play in the water but I figured this was better than standing in the middle of a sprinkler. Of course before I knew it he had half the table filled with mud so I guess that will be a project for another day. I always need projects anyway I suppose...
This is much better! It's actually a little shocking to look at the before and after photos and to see how much the grass had invaded the bed. I'm pretty sure I lost a couple perennials in the process of digging out the grass but it's nothing that can't be replaced. My favorite lily is still in tact and that's all that matters!
Now that we have the base line established I'm excited to see what these areas will look like in a few months!!
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