Gratuitous Domestic Posting - Outdoor Division

Longtime reader Babs writes:

It is time to seriously think about the seeds you will be germinating this year... Last year was a complete blow out for me as we had a hail storm early in the season, soon after we placed our plants outdoors. Last year was a wipe out.

Hope springs eternal and I vowed to start the seedlings earlier than last year so they would be stronger, bigger, more able to withstand hail or whatever God placed before them... Yeah! We will prevail this year!!!!!!

So, what are your thoughts?

Well, my first thought is a sense of guilt that I still haven't cleaned out the dead stuff from my garden from last year. (I haven't got round to bringing in the porch furniture, either.) For some reason I got busy and distracted this fall.....and the next thing I know it's the middle of January!

As for what's going to happen this year, I am of two minds: On the one hand, the same basic set of plants has been in for three or four years now and is beginning to mature nicely. The hands-off side of me says leave well enough alone - just concentrate on feeding and pruning.

On the other hand, I've never really been terribly happy about my soil (too much clay). I've also made the mistake of letting Kong the Buddleia run riot, and now the Konglings are infesting all the rest of the beds. The hands-on side of me says get out there this spring with a tiller, a wheelbarrow and several cubic meters of topsoil/compost, dig it all up and start over again.

But no matter what course I take within the garden, the one thing I'll have to do is work on its defensive perimeter. I've more or less stopped the deer and the rabbits, but last year a woodchuck started burrowing in and snacking. This must not be allowed to happen again.