This is What Happiness Looks Like

Several weeks ago, my front garden was seriously depressing me. This morning I woke up to this, and all was well again:

Doesn't that just scream spring? If you are interested, the story of how I "procured" these irises is here and here. So for the first time in a few weeks, I spent the day gardening.

First I dug up the plants I wanted to keep, then pulled the weeds and loosened the dirt.

Next comes newpaper to cut down on the weeds. Watering them keeps them in place.

Cow manure goes on next, then mulch. My daughter was highly amused when I told her what manure was. What does it smell like? Poop. It is. It's cow poo. Yuck! Do plants like cow poo? Yep, they think it is a hot fudge sundae!! Ewwwww.
Here it is, all done. I put the vinca back in, and added some white impatien cuttings. In the middle I'll put in a Split Leaf Philodendron some time in the upcoming weeks. Now, most gardeners who know what they are doing will tell you to put the manure under the newspaper, near the roots, and this probably good advice. I put it on top because, under no circumstances should my husband see newspaper in the garden. This upsets him. So manure helps cover the newspaper and cuts down on how much mulch I need to buy. I did the same thing in the butterfly garden and when I was planting lily bulbs, I noticed the soil was light and fluffy. And there was a total worm convention going on! So I must not be doing it too wrong.