Update on saga of back garden

Yesterday, I bought 4 bags of soil with gypsum, to ammend the clay soil out back. Patty helped me get the bags (2 cu.ft. each) out of my car. We piled them on the front sidewalk. They are still there and will be until I can borrow a wheelbarrow to haul them around back. I cannot lift the bags, so will NOT be carrying them through my house! Today I have added to the stack, with 4 bags of manure/hummus - supposed to be good for plants. I think I probably also need some vermiculate to lighten the soil. That, however, I will be able to lift, as it weighs practically nothing. I did work out back a bit this AM. I've loosened up the clay soil and moved the plants that were in the area being worked on. Not much else I can do until I get the wheelbarrow, which I hope to do later today. Frankly, if it gets to be 90 degrees outside, I don't think I will even try to work out there.

I'm getting my outside decorations back out. Yesterday I renewed the paint on some of the little watering cans and small tools that I hang on a couple of trellises - one out front and one in back. At this point, nothing is growing to climb on either trellis, but last year I had morning glories out front and I suspect they will be there again this year. They seem to multiply each year, so I'm pretty sure I will have more than I can use. Luckily, I like them, as it would be hard to get rid of all of them. I've also been digging out my birdhouse collection and repositioning them on my deck railing. I don't have nearly as many as last year - perhaps there is another box of them down in the storage room. I will have some new ones to put out, as soon as I get them painted and decorated. I did hang some small ones on the plum tree out front. They are totally useless as bird houses, as they are way too small, but they look cute hanging there.

Later today, Patty and her mother and I are going to a plant nursery to look for dogwood trees and check out the other stuff. Even if I don't find a tree, I'm sure to buy something. I have a hard time resisting plants in the spring. This AM when I went to Home Depot to buy some bags of hummus, I ended up with 6 plants as well. The plants are ok to buy, if you get them soon after they arrive at HD. After a few weeks, they don't look as good, because they don't take good care of them. I just bought annuals - geraniums, snapdragons, a sweet potato vine and something with little blue flowers (I've forgotten what it is). Most of them will go into pots out front.

We have a ground hog living under the front steps again this year. Actually he is under the steps next door, which is vacant at the moment. Patty and I are hoping to fill the space under the steps with stones in order to discourage the beast. Ground hogs are voracious eaters and will destroy our flower beds. We've been lucky for a couple of years, but this one is a juvenile and hasn't found a proper den yet. We want him to go elsewhere - soon!