Sometimes I wish...

...I were a restoration gardener. Reading Country Mouse's post yesterday about finding the Lupinus hirsutissimus really made me happy. Just imagine helping nature along up there in the coastal hills. How peaceful.

Take me, in contrast. I spent last weekend starting to get the garden ready for the garden tour. Now, you'd think that means planting attractive annuals, maybe rearranging a planter or two, snipping off a few dead flowers...The reality is different. What people look for is a tidy garden, and the first step in making the garden tidy is to clean up the paths and dry creek beds.

I have a lot of dry creek bed, both in the back and in the front. In the back, I also have the neighbor's redwood trees dropping branches, and the bark on the mounds gets washed into the creek during the rains. The result is this:

Part of me says that's fine. But the other part says "Town Mouse, you don't go to a job interview in torn jeans, and you don't show your garden with really messy dry creek beds." So I got down on my knees for several hours and moved around the rocks, collected redwood twigs and bark, and disposed of a few slugs (so that's where they live!).

Better. Even if we have another storm, the worst is taken care of. Next come the edges of the paths, which look like this right now.

Fortunately, this will be an easier job, so I can wait to sweep there until we're a little closer to tour day. I'll also have to sweep the square pavers, which are dirty, and remove the worst of the weeds (I hope to get some of that vinegar weed control for the dandelion). Here's a paver picture with bonus Towhee. 

And I'll have to remove the avocado that the squirrel brought by and placed on the arbor. Don't ask me why, I'm not a squirrel. I'm a mouse.

There's also the DG patio, to sweep and rake, and I have to oil the IPE benches. Would a restoration gardener do that? No, but a suburban gardener would.

But, in the end, when I look around and see the birds visiting, the fountains splashing, and all the plants looking happy after the winter rain, maybe it's not so bad. When I look away from the redwood twigs and see the big picture, I feel lucky. And suddenly I hear the birds, and the wind in the tree, and I'm just happy to be outside. 

P.S. Before tour day, I'll also go back to North Coast Gardening's "Four Secrets to a FAST Garden Makeover" and put on some final touches. And then, I'll cross my fingers for sunshine!