Mother's Day 2010: Japanese maple

For Mother's Day I asked for a day of gardening without primary child care responsibilities. I love gardening with Tristen, but it's easier to make headway on projects if Chris is on duty.

Saturday, we picked out a Japanese Maple for our corner. On Sunday morning, after Chris and Tristen made pancakes (Brenda's recipe!), Tristen and I headed out to dig up the sod while Chris procured a truckload of mulch. By the end of the day, we had turned the soil, amended it with compost, planted the tree, and sunk a few pieces of old drain pipe in the ground. We've since planted the pipes with tufts of scotch moss and surrounded them with bluegrass. By end of summer, we'll have a rockery to keep all the mulch from sliding onto the sidewalk. I'll plant some lobelia and other ground covers, too.