Lavender redux

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. Especially since I am always thinking about my garden and considering what to do next. The last time I was at the house (last weekend) we had friends visiting, and there was no time to do any gardening between showing them around the region and running after the little ones. I wish I could say that we could just let the kiddos loose in the garden, but it's full of stingweed, which - as you may guess from the name - leaves a very unpleasant stinging sensation when it brushes against your bare skin. We had expected for the grass to have been cut before our visit, but the people we'd hired told us that the machine broke down practically right at the start of the job. This is not surprising to me as the weeds in our garden often grow to some six feet tall and a couple inches thick. Seriously, it can be like a jungle and you need appropriate jungle-hacking equipment to tame our yard.

But advancements have been made in small ways. With the help of our friend, Dawg finished assembling our compost bin. It seemed quite a laborious task, but I think it looks great! And the compost itself is beginning to become a dark and earthy mix; finally not just a heap of twigs and organic trash. Here's a pic of the bin hanging out behind our barn:

I've also made some decisions about my balcony lavender plant. After seeing a very healthy, green and not-at-all woody lavender plant on the balcony of a friend, I figured my poor plant would probably never recover. But my friend, who studied lanscaping, suggested that I basically make a cutting of the whole plant,but instead of putting on our balcony, plant it directly in our garden. She said it should thrive well directly in the earth. Good idea!

Now if I could ever find a moment to actually spend in the garden! Except for a brief stint this weekend to decide upon the color of the house(have you ever had to make this decision - it's so scary), we won't be back until the first full weekend in June. On the bright side, we'll be bring Dawg's parents with us. Dawg's dad is a fabulous gardener, so I'm sure he'll have all kinds of tips for us.