In the Garden 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

Remember: Everyone else is doing it better than you.

And yet you're doing it better than everyone else.

That should cover all the bases, right?

For the garden this year, we're beautifying. 2 years ago, we cleaned up, last year, we grew veggies and made everything functional, and in 2013, we want some prettiness as well.

Yeah, that trellis is gone. While we grew some vines on it, it just wasn't that awesome for our purposes. If you're in KC, it's on our curb in Roeland Park, just check Craigslist FREE section if you're interested.  My mother's day gift from Ryan is a dwarf tree, just have to pick it out. It'll be great right there because it won't shade the veggies (since it's on the north side of the garden).

The wildflowers came roaring back after taking an eternity to settle in last summer.  Remember, perennials tend to look a bit wilder and perhaps less showy than many annuals, but I didn't have to do a lick of work this year for pretty blooms--that's worth millions in my book.

I decided to plants some wave petunias in our dead tree trunk. There are two beautiful holes...why not?  I put compost into the holes, so I've added plenty of nutrients.

They'll spread out in the coming weeks and add some lovely color.

I had another large log and popped a petunia in there.  Annuals tend not to root deeply, putting their work into what's on top of the dirt, so the rather shallow hole is probably okay. And if it's not?  It was a very inexpensive plant.

And I've got a couple of "tips" for you that's aren't so pretty (only in scare quotes because I'm not sure if they're the best solution, but they seem to work for now).  If you have cats, you know that they looooove digging in the garden to do their business.  We had old fencing lying around and rolled it over the veggie beds.  Not gorgeous, but it's working like a charm.

Another thing we did was put old evergreen branch clumps between our tomato vines.  The cat really doesn't like them and won't dig in 'em.  We've had these cat barriers up a few weeks, and I'm happy to say Rufus has found another place to do the dirty deed, thankfully.  But he's brought me two dead birds in the past week (one, he brought into my house and put under the sofa), so maybe he's trying to teach me a lesson.

Anyway, I've got to plant my moonvine seeds, get started on the sunflowers on the side of the yard, and eventually figure out my master no-mow lawn plan.  Still plenty of work to be done.  Enjoy your weekend!