Sunday, May 31, 2009

People who like to garden are psycho...

When we left Chicago for Hawaii in early May, it was pretty cold. Now, 1 month later it's still pretty chilly out.

We did come back greeted to a backyard garden chock full of tons of blooming plants. Wonderful! As you can see, Sidney is enjoying himself. At one point, he was actually tiptoeing through the tulips...

So, back from vacation, it was finally time to deal with the yard. Remember the great deal Mike got last fall on the lawnmower for $20? Well, it was time to take it to the repair shop to see if they could get it working. And work it does! They did a total tune up, replaced the blade, and the mower looks and works like it's brand new. Score!

After the grown grass was dealt with, it was time to deal with the front mud. We no longer call in the front lawn because, well, it's pretty obvious why. The plan was to sow the grass seed with the dirt rake, and be done with it in 2 hours. True, that was my plan, but my husband knew better. Turns out, we were going to have to re-till the front lawn again.

A quick stop over to Crafty Beaver, and we had the tiller in tow. Michael ended up aggravating the injury he got from our Honeymoon. (No, not a "fun" injury like one would think they'd get on a honeymoon. This one involved a water slide...) But, the lawn was again tilled, and it was time to rake it flat and spread the fertilizer and seed.


Since the front mud really gets no sun, we know the trick is to make sure we water it EVERY SINGLE DAY. Turns out, even when it rains, the trees offer such good protection, that the mud really stays dry, so we're even out in the rain watering. It has now been 1 week since we put the seed down, and the end result is the seed we raked into the soil is now sitting on top of everything. No sprouts, no growing, but we're making the bird population in Albany Park pretty happy and full. So, we'll see. I will report on any change. And keeping my fingers crossed!

This past weekend, our fun (NOT!) consisted of transplanting the day lilies from the breezeway and the backyard to the front corner parkway. Again, after almost 8 hours of planting, we hope they stay alive.

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