My sister bought her first house last year after she got married. She and her husband live out in Coweta County and they have a nice, manageable back yard. Unlike my yard, their yard has no large pot holes and no dramatic slopes and the grass all looks fairly uniform. Katie also now has a thriving vegetable garden that has produced a solid crop of fresh peas that have ushered in what looks to be a promising harvest. Though the peas are now gone (and they were delicious), our family can expect to enjoy fresh squash, cucumbers, carrots and watermelon later this year.

I am very jealous of her success, especially as my grandiose dreams for a lovely yard continue to shrink with each passing day.

I should have seen it coming. My sister has always been blessed with a good deal of luck. It most certainly has something to do with her being born on St. Patrick’s Day. She constantly wins on scratch tickets, has stumbled in to free Super Bowl tickets in the past and now has a great garden on her first try.

Sabine and I tried to have a vegetable garden a few years back. It produced the most bitter green pepper I have ever tasted. I even took two bites of the pepper. Sabine had yet to react to her bite and I didn’t want to be rude and spit out the pepper and curse it at the dinner table. The first bite hadn’t even been swallowed when I put the second bite, this one drenched in Ranch dressing, in my mouth.

“Does the pepper taste a little bitter,” Sabine asked.

“Yes,” I admitted, hurriedly pulling the pulpy remnants out of my mouth with a napkin.

The vegetable garden soon went unattended.

So, here we are, two years later with a wild lawn and a yard that gives us areas of full shade (and I’m talking permanent evening) or full blast, scorching sun.

Anyone know where we can get some cactus and Joshua trees?

The good news on my lawn and garden front is that I’m learning a lot. It is just taking a long time. I have a feeling that this whole year will be a learning process of what works and what doesn’t and what I can realistically do with the limited time that I have.

Other than the three holes in my yard that I still have to be careful to avoid when I’m on the lawnmower, the lawn looks O.K. I’ve become decent with the weed whacker and I’m confident that I will be able to tame the weeds and make the grass more uniform by year’s end. Even the rampant red ant piles have diminished and I haven’t had to use a lot of chemicals.

While the recently purchased flowers died a crispy death on the front porch, I think I have a found a lovely, albeit small, space (the only one in my back yard) that gets a decent amount of both sun and shade. It is also close to where the hose is located, meaning that I don’t have to try and install an irrigation system to water this area.

I even thought to check the Clayton County Water Authority web site first to find out when I can water (Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays). Looking at Fayette County’s watering restrictions I found out that it was the same as Clayton - odd numbered addresses can water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and even-numbered addresses can water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

I’ll be going on vacation in a few weeks and I think I’ll have my sister come over to “maintain” my flower garden and maybe plant a vegetable or two while she’s at it.

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