A River Runs Through It

I guess you could say that I'm not the most patient person. I'm becoming more painfully aware of that now that the Little Nugget squawks at me when I don't fetch her milk in a timely fashion more to her liking.

So maybe gardening isn't the best hobby for me. True confessions of an impatient, short-attention-spanned gardener!!!

Here's how I roll. Spring comes and I get an irresistible urge to buy plants. Lots of them. I plant them. And they just sit there. And sit there. Now I know that plants have their own growth patterns, likes and dislikes (picky bastards), but why is it that if you have a bare patch of dirt, uninvited guests such as wild violets can set up shop in less than 5 minutes and my god-forsaken creepy thyme just sits there on its lazy ass doing nothing for months?!!! You're groundcover--cover something for the love of God!!!! The weeds are covering the dirt, why can't you???

So here's what I want the garden to look like: (oh yeah, I also built that rock wall this spring--that ROCKS! he-he!)

Aaand, here's what it looks like now:

I had to let the weeds take over to keep the remaining soil in place (yes, I HAD to! Saves time on weeding too--oh I HAVE to leave that weed there!). So here was the plan, the dream, the vision: eliminate a large chunk of yard (thereby reducing our mowing duties) by creating a large rock wall with groundcover/lawn replacement. I wanted Irish moss originally, but jeez that's expensive, so we went with creeping/creepy thyme seeds. NOTHING!!! I think I've gotten maybe 5 plants from that batch, and they are about 1inch long now--woo-hoo! So much for ground cover. In a desperate attempt to prevent further soil erosion, I broke down and bought the plants. They are happy, but SLOW. Team Nugget Gardening Tip # 562: never trust the internet for plant research. EVERYTHING I thought was sacred and true about the info I found on my plants has been WRONG!!! I digress. The rose moss is doing well, I'm happy with that, though some flowers would be nice so we can ensure we have pretty flowers next year and I don't have to repeat this mess.

The tree proved to be a bit of a problem during rain storms, which we have been getting our fair share of the drenching rain, so I slowed the water rushing down the trunk with some mulch, rocks, sedum, scottish moss and the occasional well-placed weed. It's better, but still eroding the precious soil that I painstakingly dug up and hauled into that spot--with the silly assumption that it would stay there.

To quote the wise words of the Bug, "Grrrr."

I wanted to give the groundcover a chance to cover, but I may just have to mulch. Fiddly-foo.

All for now,

Nugget