It begins again

The pesky thing about spring and gardens is that it keeps coming around and I keep having to do work in the yard. And usually it is to fix the same problems over and over again.

Of course without all that liriope grass, there's been real positive progress. And while the new plants are still very puny, most of them appear to be coming back. But we still have work to do.

Step one, fill in the holes that the squirrels caused since fall. Those little critters really went to town along the border area. I guess because the dirt there was loose? I don't know, but there were some pretty big gaps. So we filled them in with some of the compost we still have leftover from all and laid new grass seed there.

Then we relaid more compost and seed further out into the yard. Because despite thatching, seeding, watering, you-name-it last fall, we still have a lot of bare areas and very sparse, unhealthy grass. Of course the other side of the lawn (to the left of the house) looks ok, but it is actually covered in moss. So we either have moss or mud. What a choice!

At some point we need to fertilize with a nitrogen-rich blend, but I read that we aren't supposed to do that when seeding--and we are ALWAYS seeding, in the vain hope that something will actually take root...

Next up, we had to plant the few seedlings that arrived this month from an order we placed last fall with a garden supply company. Since not everything has come up yet, I tried my best to plant where I thought we had empty space, but I may have ended up crowding some other new baby plant. I guess we'll have to wait and see when everything pokes through the leaf layer.

We got so many seedlings that I had to stick some in pots temporarily. Because of course if I wanted one flowering quince, I have to get 3. And if I want one spirea vanhouttei, I have to get 5. And all of them require 5 feet of space to grow.

Also please note that while these things are supposed to reach heights of 5-8 feet, they currently look like little sticks. Less than impressive...Pathetic, actually.

Did I mention I'm a very impatient gardener?

And so for a slightly more immediate satisfaction, we are doing an herb garden again this year. No tomatoes, since they took over our stoop and looked awful, but hopefully a lot of tasty herbs.

This year we're trying two types of basil, spearmint, chives, oregano, and parsley. Oh, and green onions, which I guess isn't really an herb. Some of the seeds are last year's stock, so I hope they haven't expired. It seemed like such a waste to throw them away and buy fresh this time around.