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Unearthing the plot

The yard around my side of the duplex contains mysteries only the previous tenants can answer.

Questions like, "Why is there a cow drinking cup serving as a bird bath in the backyard?" and, "Is this single hosta plant supposed to be in the middle of the front yard?"

When I moved in last August, the landlord told me the past tenants were elderly and didn't "do much" with the yard. There's a mass of black raspberry brambles that the dog likes to use as a clubhouse. The fruit was still good into September, as opposed to the brief period in late June that I'm used to with the wild raspberries at my family's farm. Someone apparently really liked daylilies, since those plants have taken certain parts of the yard hostage. I tried to thin those out in the fall, when I also tackled the nettles. They weren't stinging nettles, but general consensus is that they're in that family. Regardless of their lineage, those plants are strangling others trying to make a go of it. Clumps of winter onions are growing in at least four different areas. I've already snipped some and used them in a recipe. We didn't get sick, so they seem to be doing fine.

This morning, I attacked the overgrown dead leaves (possibly daylilies???) by the front door. It's planted in a ring in the makeshift planter previous tenants created from a semicircle of mismatched pavers. Now that it's chopped down, it looks like a brown wreath trimmed with the vines of newly sprouted ground cover. There! My St Patrick's Day decorating is done!

As I'm waiting to see what other surprises sprout this spring, my own plantings are starting to show up. I've designated a section near the chain link fence for my vegetable garden. The compost has been on there since last fall and I hope to get some volunteer tomatoes and sunflowers. The little lilac tree from the farm has buds on it. I planted it in a hollow left by another tree long since removed from the front yard. The ice plant has survived, although the bee balm and allium don't have much life yet.

The best news: my tulips are up!