Dahlias and Grass Seeds and Lavender...Oh my!

I've been both a terribly negligent gardener and blogger. My apologies to you for the blogging bit, to my garden for the other. The only thing I've managed to get done since I last posted was plant the dahlia bulbs -- and I didn't even do that personally. My father-in-law did it. As I was almost 8 months pregnant at the time, my in-laws and husband thought it wasn't such a good idea for me to exert myself in that manner, even though I felt perfectly capable. So, the extent of my participation in the project was to tell my father-in-law where I wanted the bulbs planted and watch him do it. I know there will be plenty of other opportunties to plant bulbs, but I was a bit disappointed that I didn't do these first ones. Especially when I saw my son "helping" his grandfather water the newly planted bulbs with his tiny plastic watering can. But that's okay - the next time we went out to the house, one of the first things I did was to take Lil'Dawg out into the yard, with his little can, and water the flowers. Makes me feel good to know he'll grow up with this garden.

It was fun deciding where to put the dahlias. As I don't yet have a plan for the garden, I felt I could put them anywhere. I opted for around the well, so I'd be able to see them from our kitchen window:



I don't know whether the bulbs will actually grow. We may have left the planting too late...they should have been planted in April or May, but we didn't do it until early June. The last time I was at the house (late June), I thought I saw one shoot coming up, but it could have very well been a weed. And now, being in my 9th month of pregnancy, I won't be back at the house for at least another month or so, so I don't know what's going to happen to the poor things. Doesn't it figure that after having years of rainy summers, this one has been very hot and dry?

Anyway, we are moving ahead in other ways. We had a landscaping guy come out to figure out an estimate for leveling the yard. Right now, it is so full of ruts that Lil'Dawg keeps falling in them and cries piteously until one of us recues him. I think the job will be done in September: we'll have it leveled and a new layer of soil put on top. Then Dawg and I will sow some grass seeds. I'm really looking forward to that.

So, that's the update on our garden. Once the baby's born and we are at the house more frequently, I'll be posting regularly again.

(And by the way, the lavender on my balcony has gained new life - it looked half-dead two months ago, but now it's full of lovely purple shoots! It'll go into the ground at our house this fall.)