Illusions of Grandeur: My backyard

It has been unseasonably warm for January the last few day here in Northwest Ohio. Now will it stay this way? Heck no! But it is just enough to taunt me. It does not help that a lot of people I know are talking about seed catalogs and planting ideas. Now that the holidays are over, it is time to start shifting gears and planning my attack for the garden/yard.

Oh, the feel and smell of the earth! The beauty of a seed growing into something that sustains you. Sitting in the garden at twilight and appreciating the beauty around you. Ah! Relaxing.

 POP! there goes the dream, it was all an illusion! Instead you see this...

The WAR ZONE!!!!!!

     The above pictures are my backyard.  Small, muddy, and in need of more TLC! Most of my grass is crab grass, so when that dies all that is left is mud. I blame the majority of this mud hole on the dog. She for some reason just loves to dig when it is winter, spreading dirt every which way. This fall I raked the straw from the coop clean outs in the the most muddy areas. Now all I can think of is the movie "Ten Commandments" you know the scene when Moses is down in the slave pits churning mud as other slaves are adding straw to make bricks. Hmmm...


 
The houses in our neighborhood are close together. So close you could hand a cup of sugar out your window to your neighbor's without leaving the house. Alright, I may be exaggerating, but you get the point. Pretty much everyone on my side of the street have shared driveways. Lucky for us we love our neighbors so it is not too bad.

I am not garden handicapped. I get "gardening." Each year I attempt to create the perfect haven. We put in the the patio, we did a koi pond, I did an herb garden. But at the end of the summer, I realize I did not achieve my desired goal. But this year will be different! I have been saved so to speak.

My saving grace came in the form of Chris McLaughlin's book "Vertical Vegetable Gardening." This book is a must have! I was able to get a copy of this book before it hit the shelves. Chris and I met through the blog Farm Chick Chit Chat. We both are contributors for this blog. She asked us to read this and write a review for her. I read this book in two hours. My head was spinning at all the ideas that I will be incorporating into my small yard this year. One of my favorite aspects Chris uses is
re-purposing items. I love to reuse items.

Of course my dream is to move out of the city, I would even take just an acre. But for now my plans are coming together for the spring. Seed catalogs are on their way, my green thumb is itching to play in the dirt, and as the saying goes  "Bloom where you are planted!"