I am bushed. (But not treed. And it’s not true that I rose. Excuse me, it’s the effect of having spent all day with my husband.) Today we bought 960 lb. of topsoil (”organic soil dressing,” the label said, but it was sold at the topsoil price) in the mothers’ van (plus bagels for a day trip we’re taking tomorrow) and unloaded it in our driveway. This was the only way to ensure that we would really deploy it as intended today, since we need the driveway clear in order to get my car onto the road.

Eric mowed. I pulled bindweed and Japanese knotweed. Eric got the bright idea of dethatching the lawn to find any bare spots to cover with dirt and/or grass seed, so I dethatched the front lawn while he mowed the back. He raked the top layer of leaves/dead flowerheads/mulch from the triangle and dumped it in the hole on the curb grass strip left from the New Year’s plumbing fiasco. We both pondered the question of the wild onion. (No decision made.) We spread dirt along the driveway moats and finally filled them, plus that hole at the curb, plus most of the hole near the garage and the little strip between the driveway and the fence where I want to plant morning glories. Eric spread grass seed while I moved the thatch to the compost pile. We went inside and collapsed. It doesn’t sound like so much, but it took hours and we’re not used to marathon yardwork sessions.

There’s still plenty to do, but we made a good start. I’m hopeful that the yard will actually look nice by the time, say, fall rolls around. Also that soon I will be able to plant out the winter-sown flowers, which I’m itching to do, but I intend to put a lot of them in the driveway bed where we didn’t quite have enough dirt to fill. Still, morning glories and cardinal climber will go out soon, and I’ll find places to tuck flowers. I’m pleasantly tired still, with threats of unpleasantly achy tomorrow, plus there’s that day trip, so it won’t be this weekend; but soon, very soon, those flowers will graduate to regular plant status.