by Amanda Giannaros

Created on: August 19, 2009   Last Updated: October 23, 2009

The Great Outdoor Battle began in 2006. It was the first really warm day of May and I was itching to get outdoors. My yard wasn't too bad, I just had a planter or two full of weeds that needed to be dug out and flowers put in. I live in Seattle so I dusted off my Northwest Gardeners Almanac and started picking flowers that would thrive in our climate. I carefully mapped out my semi-circle planter, from the tallest plants in back down to the White Allysum border around the front. Now that I had a plan I needed to get outfitted. I had nothing, no gloves, hat, appropriate gardening shoes or tools, so I bought it all. Home again with my plans, tools and fabulous gardening ensemble, I set to work.

I carefully read the instructions on spacing and planting depth and planted accordingly. I mixed colors and blooming seasons, my goal was to have a garden that bloomed from spring to fall. My flowers had a different idea. the Ice Plants started to take over, pretty typical of a ground cover, then completely died off when the first frost hit. My Snapdragons bloomed the first of December. It was a nice splash of color against the snow. The White Allysum never filled in like it should have and my coral bells only add one bloom each year, first year one bloom, second year two blooms and so on. My carefully planned flower bed was sparse and half dead, nature had thwarted me.

I call this the Great Outdoor Battle because I was up against it all, the elements, the soil, the wildlife. It's Seattle, what wildlife could there be? Cats, birds, squirrels, the occasional raccoon, and my neighbor. My garden has to stand up against rain, sun, wind, critters, and a woman thinking she needs to cut holes in our hedge so we can see her daughter who may or may not be riding her bike, thereby avoiding a collision. The cats also belong to this woman.

As my attentions shifted from my flowerbeds, I began to notice that my yard is not in as good of shape as I thought. The hedges are over grown, what I thought was a nice carpet of grass turns out to be some thing grass over a thick carpet of moss dappled with dandelions. Three years of work and I'm just getting started.

Our house was once a large single family house, it has now been converted into a tri-plex. My husband and I manage the building from the basement apartment, the main floor and top floor are both rented out. Two sisters live on the top floor and they love to garden. Together we have built a rather impressive container garden, bypassing the horrible conditions in the ground. We have acquired a green house and are starting work on a couple of raised vegetable beds. Our goal is to eventually get rid of the grass altogether. We are working on a flagstone patio with a barbecue pit, and a nice seating area.The hedge needs to be cut down to a manageable height and arches put into the entryways

Our yard is just getting underway, it's a large project but one that will be very rewarding in the end. I have learned from that flowerbed I planted three years ago, I now have several large, weather resistant plants in there and they are coming along nicely. One of these days we will have a yard that is fit for entertaining, providing of course that we can keep the neighbor lady away.

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