Days 5-10: Sick in bed, dreaming of raised beds

Ugh. I can't blame spring, but the farthest I've been able to get as far as gardening this last week would be dreaming about it as I lay feverishly in bed, stare longingly through Saturday's freakin' massive downpour, stare groggily at it during my medicated haze on Sunday, and cough at it today as I continue to barely be able to walk a block without getting dizzy. Grr. Why am I taunted so?

So my dear lawn, my dear garden, do not think I'm gone, I do not mean to neglect you so. I'm still keeping an eye out for little grass sprouts to pop up -- and I'm so glad the rain has been so regular and kept you so well watered. I look forward to seeing you sprout.

One realization today: If I do get to putting together a raised bed, I realized that I should probably be thinking several long and narrow raised bedS rather than the one big fat one I was imagining. This might be a no-duh to some of you, as I'm learning part of the purpose of raised beds is having an area that's easy to work with that's set up so that you don't have to walk on the soil, and therefore the soil stays well-drained and doesn't get over-compacted and all that. Makes sense. And starts to put my dreams into better focus.

So I guess it wasn't a completely wasted week. I'm not having to tear up a big, fat, giant raised bed ...

Days 3 & 4: God bless the rain

No time blocks for gardening, and God bless the rain -- it's doing the work for me. Haven't even worried about over watering the lawn seeds after finishing up the re-seed thanks to some stormy weather. I think I timed this right. Not only am I saving on my water bill and relieving pressure from my taxed memory, but the kids aren't trying to play soccer or T-ball in the middle of my baby lawn.

Now I have time to plot my "next move" while I anxiously wait for the pot to boil ... err, grass seeds to germinate.

And despite previous fears of what the new alley would do once the rain began, the stormwater flowed nicely into the stormwater drain -- as it should -- during yesterday's downpour. Yeah.

Time to go work on my checklist ... must research what's the next garden project to hurdle.

Because this year I'm determined to stop the trend of years past -- this year my lawn and gardens will look better by the end of the season rather than worse. Seriously. Stop laughing!

Day 2 - Project Lawn now in orbit

Took advantage of a sunny Sunday and finished up the overseeding of my lawn, and bucket-by-bucket spreading of Tagro across my lawn. One of these days I'll invest in a wheelbarrow -- but for now, I'll just chalk it up to a workout.

It feels so nice to have completed a project over the course of one weekend rather than many.

And now that the kids are all out of newborn stage, I look forward to many spring and summer evenings of all of us out in the yard, playing, weeding, gardening, and spending time together.

It's obvious our whole block is going to be pretty social this summer. Our alley just got paved, and as I spread seed and soil amendment all over my sad, soddy, bare-spot-covered lawn, the alley erupted into action. Bicycles, tricycles, skateboards, parents and kids playing catch, kids running, cats stalking ... it was rather heartwarming.

And now that the paving is done, the spot at the edge of my yard, between the yard and the alley, the parking strip and the fence, is looking like it might become that raised-bed veggie gardens of my dreams after all. But perhaps I should focus on the flower beds, first. Hmm ... the to-do list at the moment:

1. Finish planting the lavender and roses still in their containers from last summer/fall's purchases
2. Fill in the flower beds, and mix some potting soil and/or soil amendment into them
3. Research some groundcover and easy plants to fill in some bare dirt spaces
4. Plot out my raised bed plan
5. Keep an eye on the lawn and see what it does -- a couple spots might soon turn into rain gardens to alleviate drainage issues
6. Determine whether we're replacing the deck this year or next
   
7. Dream about cheap and easy green houses (probably something for next year or the year after)

And yes, I meant to number those ... that's pretty much the order I see things happening. So if something at the end of the list gets accomplished, and something at the beginning doesn't, I will officially be in shock.

Day 1 - Green Intentions

I grew up on a farm. But don't overestimate me -- we didn't farm it, a local farm family rented the fields surrounding our house and did the farming. We had the benefit of running through fields and forest, but any gardening we did was in the side yard with our mother. And after a certain point in our childhood, we all go too busy to continue the garden and it became a fond memory, rather than reality.

Now, I live in the city. And I struggle to keep my grass green, my flowers perky, and, in general, putting the dirt to good use. I really haven't a clue as to what to do with a raised bed. I see friends' gardens full of this and that -- and even when it's random it looks fabulous. But I don't know where to start.

Last year, as a North Ender living near the former Asarco plant, I got my lawn "remediated" ... meaning they allegedly took out a bunch of dirt, put "clean" dirt back in, and then spread sod all over my once spotty lawn.

It was heaven, for a few days. We watered religiously, and scooted our toes through the lush greens after they'd had a few days to put down roots.

But then the raccoons attacked.

Rolling up the edges of the sod to get at the grubs they figured were hiding beneath. Heck, pretty soon they were pulling up the little sod squares all over the place. One morning, my husband claims that he awoke to at least half if not three-quarters of the sod sitting askew from the roly poly raccons hunting for midnight snacks. Needless to say, this didn't do nice things to our lawn.

Then came my mowing attempts. While a push reel mower is great for an established lawn on established soil, apparently it can wreak a bit of havoc on poorly draining new dirt and sod. The clippings I hoped would add additional nutrition into my yard turned to a paste on my lawn that effectively thwarted the previous few weeks' hard work.

Then fall came, and the leaves falling from the neighbor's tree helped not a bit.

So I've stared at my pitiful lawn for the last couple months. Waiting.

Now it's almost spring. And I've decided to take action. I ordered a load of the City of Tacoma's Tagro "soil amendment" product. My husband went over to GardenSphere and got a big bag of grass seed. And today, despite the rain, I went to work. Spreading seed and Tagro, hoping that by summer my children will have grass to roll on ... and I won't rake up sod netting every time I try to collect clippings or leaves.

We'll see how it goes. I have other gardening intentions as well ... big dreams of figuring out this raised beds thing, maybe someday constructing a rain garden or even a small greenhouse. Actually buying plants and planting them, rather than letting them die in their containers. And now that the children are old enough to play while I play in the mud. Heck, now that they're old enough to help.

Here goes ...