Life's Interruptions

I meant to work on the yard every day, and post regular updates.  But just as soon as I'd gotten started, life decided to throw a fairly giant curveball.  One of our cats knocked the screen out of an open window and disappeared.  She's been missing for a week now, and the search has been occupying most of my time and energies.  Ads are all over the internet, signs and flyers all over the neighborhood.  We've checked under the neighborhood's decks and shrubs repeatedly, walked around and around during the day and the night, with treats and flashlights and scent markers.  We make the 20 minute drive to the shelter every couple of days.  And nothing.  No sign of Spark.

So there she is.  If she's out in the world somewhere and you see her, let me know.  She's spayed and short-haired.  Probably not as overweight as she was when she left.  She's missing one nail on her back foot, but has all the others.  She likes to play fetch.  We miss her.

Difficult decisions

I discovered a conundrum while weeding today.  Not all native plants are desirable.  Take, for example, Virginia creeper.

Its name notwithstanding, this plant is actually native to southern Michigan forests.  (Much like the Virginia bluebell, of which I am enamored.  It will feature heavily in my woodland garden--once, of course, I find a nursery that is ethical about its propagation of wildflowers, of course.)  What's more, Virginia creeper is one of the few vines native to the area, and certainly the best climber.  But therein lies the rub.  Virginia creeper is not invasive, but it is extremely aggressive.  It is likely to choke out other plants in the relatively small ecosystem of the backyard.  

To pull, then, or not to pull?

For now, i've decided to eliminate it, and give the spring ephemerals and more delicate wildflowers a chance to become established.  Happily, should I ever change my mind, I'll only have to stop weeding for a season or two and this creeper will....well, creep right back.

And as I pull the creeper and assorted mystery weeds, I am replacing them with Wild Geranium, split off from the abundant clump at the front of the house.  It should spread quickly and prevent weeds from re-establishing before I can interplant ferns, columbines, chelones, and bluebells.  Oh my!

Turning over lots and lots of new leaves

We bought a lovely little house when we were married, and we meant to stay there forever.  But then the neighborhood changed, and the schools got worse, and we were suddenly in a position to pay attention to those things.  So we moved.  The new house was so different from the old.  Bigger, colder, shadier.  It was hard, moving from golden tones and roses in the all-day sun to stark white and gray and weeds in solid shade.  For a year I struggled to stop missing our old house, and failed utterly.  But then I realized that I hadn't been going about it the right way; I had been trying to turn this house into that one, and that would never work.  So, instead, I've decided to embrace this house, and to make it a home in the way it deserves.  And in the way we deserve.

This house has the bones to be a dream cottage; it has a river stone fireplace, gorgeous ceiling beams, and huge windows with plantation shutters.  It just needs some brightening, so that it isn't overwhelmed and made gloomy by the shade of all the trees outside.  And, speaking of outside, those weeds have got to go!  Since the trees are most emphatically staying, there's nothing for it but to turn the yard into a woodland garden.  There will be meandering paths, wildflowers, ferns, and maybe even a woodland rose or two.  In the spirit of embracing things for what they are, all the plants in the woodland garden will be native to the deciduous forests of southern Michigan.  (The more formal flower beds at the front of the house, bordering the small lawn and with just enough sun to scrape by, will consist of definitely non-native cottage flowers.  What?  It's supposed to be a woodland cottage, after all.)

So here goes.  I suppose I'd better start by looking for some before pictures; I may have gotten a little excited about the transformation and started work before I started this chronicle of it....