Where nothing grows...

Dock and I have been on Fairmead for two years (in June) now. Fortunately, when we bought the house...the front yard was beautifully landscaped. I have had to do very little other than overhaul the flower bed by the post box, plant some impatiens under the pin oak and plop some hostas in the ground by the front walk. I'm feeling a bit randy, so I am trying my hand at summer bulbs this year. Hopefully...they will sprout beneath the crepe myrtle in the front of the house.

The pin oak in the front yard, as you can see, is quite large. It is next to impossible for me to plant anything on the right side of the house due to the shade. Mr pin oak is going to have a date with the tree doctor soon as I fear he is trying to move inside.

In our back yard, the pin oak has a friend. I cannot figure out which type of tree it is, but it's another monster. Don't get me wrong...I love the shade. Especially, come summer when the air conditioner is running at full force and my electric bill is astronomical. The shade does come in handy. But...it is creating many problems for me and my green fingers.

Along the side of the fence, in the back yard, is an area I call Vietnam. It's shady, soggy, very damp and the soil is almost sandy. Grass will not grow there, moss is afraid and I cannot even train the dog to take care business in that particular area. So...I have a giant area of dirt. A sea of dirt, if you wish.

Last year, Dock and I tried putting some hostas down as ground cover, along with some monkey grass and English ivy. Most of it has managed to survive. As I mentioned above, I'm feeling a little more creative this year (the bulbs), so I decided to add more hostas, ivy, some greenish-yellowish ground cover, bleeding hearts, caladium and flowering lariope. Today...it looks like this. Hopefully, come June or July, the dirt will be overrun with lush, fertile growth. Hopefully. Otherwise, I may be forced to reenact a fine Pinemere Camp tradition...the mud-hike.