Our early attempts at landscaping are few. Winter set in almost immediately after we moved in, and battening down the hatches was about the best we could do at the time. We managed to get some grass planted, because we needed to keep our loam from washing away. Now the grass is coming up in weird little patches. In the fall, when I'm sure as much has grown in as intends to, I'm going to reseed to fill in the few places where it didn't take very well.

At some point, we should probably purchase a lawnmower or rent a son.

We've planted shrubs on the edge of the walkway, and some basket of gold and phlox in the stone wall. Eventually those will cascade prettily all over the place, but for now they're clinging to life with a tenacity that I admire, considering the fact that nothing around them contains any nutrients. They have rock and sand to root into, and just a small bit of loam and mulch that I was able to mash into the crevices where they're planted.

I did most of my purchasing from seed catalogs, which will save you all kinds of money, but it's not so great in the realm of instant gratification. Most of the plants that we put in probably won't flower until late in the season, if they do anything this year at all.

And there's the birdfeeding station. We have three varieties of seed, suet, hummingbird nectar that is currently being eaten only by ants, and a bird bath that is heated in the winter. I'm also planning on adding an oriole feeder, and a ground feeder to try to attract cardinals.

I have a number of species, but right now the feeder is being ruled by a very cute red squirrel. I have already ordered a new feeder that should discourage him, but I plan to compromise by doing some ground feeding. I don't mind the little guy coming, I just don't like him hogging all the seed and scaring off the birds.