Hello,

I have had some of the best laughs reading posts around the forum today. Gardeners are an interesting mix.

Having just finished our first crazy year in our new home, I know I can't let the yard go without putting in some beauty for next year. DH and I are frantically doing fall clean-up and trying to get beds ready to stick some plants in that I dug out of my mom's yard. This is where the miracle part really comes in, because everything I've been reading suggests it's pretty iffy to try to divide or transplant perennials and bulbs right now... still, Mom's needed thinning, she has beautiful gardens that I want to duplicate, and she says this will work. We will see. Experienced gardeners are probably shaking their head at me.

We held off on digging Mom's plants til we had done some major clean-up... my sister hauled two trailer's full of brush to her land in the country already, and we've started another load. This place was so let go! We got a free lesson from our neighbor (who has an immaculate yard) on the creeping charlie that is growing on our side of the lot line (and everywhere else in our yard too).

The thing that really slowed us down was after we very logically decided to focus on one bed next to the deck and leave the rest of the garden til next year. We thought we'd have all Mom's plants in the ground the same day... but the shrubs in that bed were pretty bad looking, needed removing. So DH dug them out, which took a while.

I had noticed the dwarf crab in that bed was half leaf-less this summer. Now we know why... under the bark mulch we found the ground competely covered with landscaping fabric. The tree and shrub roots were growing on top of it, apparently to try to avoid suffocation. Also, the lawn had grown about two feet over the original edge of the bed, so we had to cut sod too.

The bed is finally almost ready to plant, just need to grade the soil to slope away from the house. But we have a toddler and baby and it takes both parents to get anything done outside while keeping the kiddies safe and warm. And since we fell backwards, it's too dark outside when DH gets home from work.

Need another miracle... hope those transplanted clumps won't mind waiting til this weekend to be put in the ground. If they even have a chance to ever grow at all...

I have hopes of planting bulbs too. Maybe I'm nuts, but the idea of spring flowers is such a pleasant one. Hmm, there are a lot of frisky squirrels and chipmunks out there.

I figure, despite what we do, the gardens can't be any worse than they are now.

And I'm having fun starting a compost pile, anyway.

All the best.