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.