Well, I am now dug up. Not that I personally have been buried — except under mountains of paperwork and random stuff undone. But that patch of lawn in my backyard that I’ve been glaring at for a year — OK, nearly two years — wishing without action that it would become a flower garden, has now been tilled. As you can see, something was needed:
My plan isn’t for a lot of edibles this year, except for herbs. I don’t have time or energy for much maintenance, so I am going to broadcast flower seeds madly and hope for much color — though I’ll broadcast in a somewhat orderly fashion, now that I’ve learned the pollinators are better served by groupings of color. This weekend the weather took a turn to the warm, Barney the Lawn Guy had a few hours to dedicate to my list, and off we went.
Because I live in a fairly new residential area where the soil has been scraped and rearranged to suit the builders rather than the green, growing things, I needed to add some amendments. So I went out and bought bags of top soil — I know, I know: People GIVE that stuff away. This was easy, and remember, this is to be the lazy person’s garden — and I wanted to get it started. A few bags of Miracle Gro for Vegetables went in the mix, along with three bags of Moonure. I’m certain you can guess the active ingredient on that one.
After Barney had tilled the 4-foot strip around the fence and worked in the topsoil and compost, it didn’t take my little pup long at all to notice that something had changed in the backyard. 
And from that realization, it didn’t take but another three seconds for him to drop down and start rolling in it. Although he looks like a Teddy bear, in significant ways, CP is all-dog, all the time. One of these ways is his deep affection for getting up close and personal with the stinky and the icky.
So now, there’s a new game at my house, called Let CP Out Long Enough to Do His Business But Not Long Enough to Start Rolling. So far CP is winning large.
Here’s me with serious hat-hair, having perspired and dog-wrangled for a couple of hours. My plan is to fill that gnarly space behind me with lots of sunflowers, coneflowers, rudebekia and varoius balms — plus, of course, a couple of tomato plants, basil and other culinary herbs just because one must. I hope the bees and butterflies like it because this season, it’s all about the pollinators. And I hope I don’t end up strangling my Cutie Patootie puppy before the summer is over.
Stay tuned …
