On How I Got Here

... or Things were looking pretty good around here until the dog showed up.

I became the proud owner of a rescued Golden Retriever, Luna, last August. She turned one in November and is frenetic force in the garden. My garden is approximately .15 acres in the Westover Hills neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia (zone 7). I live with my husband (the BackBou) and two young children.

My garden July 2007

The BackBou's pride and joy: his earth oven

We moved into this house right after my oldest was born and I have worked hard to train them to walk on the paths and to treat the plants with great respect. My eldest has her own garden square and my youngest get hers this year. We have a mulched area for their swing set and a small patch of lawn, ... well, I guess that should be "we had a small patch of lawn."

The dry conditions over the summer, my lack of enthusiasm for watering turf, the arrival of the dog with her crazed runs and, deep sigh, digging just about ruined any chance of a lawn by September. And then we host a 100+ person party in October (which this past year followed 3 days of drenching rain). We had to put hay down for the party -- the yard had turned into a mud bowl.

Now I can't blame this all on Luna. But my biggest gardening struggle right now is learning how to garden with this beast. I'm having to learn a different way to garden -- I have to garden tougher. This blog will chronicle my journey ...