Been a lawn time comin'.

i used to love going over to my friend emily's house in the Annex when i was a teenager. her mother amanda was an avid gardener and had created a stellar urban oasis in the backyard. there were little paths throughout the yard and plants of all sizes, shapes and colours. i was most impressed by the absence of grass (well, of lawn, actually - she had all kinds of ornamental grasses). i'd never really seen that in any toronto backayrds. anyway, amanda's garden has remained my favourite toronto garden and is the one i compare all others to.

i love gardening and i have tried to do it for years. i say tried because i have probably killed more plants than i have grown. i've learned quite a bit over the years and though i have done a little bit of research, most of my knowledge comes from trial and error - mostly error. the house i rent had a garden when i moved in, but it was in rough shape when i got a hold of it. in five years i have done quite a bit with it and i am rather proud of how it has come along though i still do call it my ghetto garden. initally i had great intentions to make it a chemical-free, organic haven-in-the-city, but that quickly went to shit. i think i was too eager (read: impatient), so i resorted to a little miracle-gro here and there. the lawn was nice when i first moved in, due mostly to my landlord's aggressive love of herbicides. naturally i put a stop to that one and just attacked them manually. but, after a few summers of filming out of town, the weeds (bull thistle, crab grass, goldencreeper , dandelions, creeping buttercups and so on) overtook the grass and were beginning to encroach on the other plants.

so, last spring i decided to tear up the whole lawn and start from scratch. my big plans went nowhere fast, as i had to work out of town for over a month and when i came back the lawn was full of pretty, tall cosmos and annoying rasberry mini-bushes that i just couldn't bring myself to kill.

a full on disaster.

so THIS spring, i will finish what i started last spring. i promise. i have re-dug everything, removing every last trace of weed root that i could. it was a very long process and my back and hands are paying the price, but it felt SO good!

finally i got the ground ready and yesterday i lay down all the grass seed. happiness. today the rain is falling and is meant to continue all week. timing couldn't be better. fingers crossed that the seeds germinate well. and maybe one day

the garden will look more like it did before (and of course even better), and i can once again frolic and play in it - hopefully with YOU. that would make me very happy. wish me luck.

x