New Year's Projects

In Davis January is a good time to start making plans for garden projects and for beginning to gather supplies. We never really know if it will rain all month or if we will be blessed with some of those perfect days where the (hard clay) soil is soft from rain and therefore easily dug for paths or other projects. It is best to leave the planting beds alone...they're too wet to dig. But I have plans to redo my front path and I'm making plans to get the stone I need and when the right day arrives I'll be ready to go. Several years ago I looked around and all my front lawn had disappeared. I don't much like grass and I'm not good at growing it...somehow this led to my expanding the flower beds until they took over. In a way it was a relief to know that people could stop asking if I was eventually going to take out all the grass...I really didn't think I would or could...I thought that lawn was sort of "normal". Now I'm not sure if I think lawn is normal...but I really don't care since it's my yard and I'm not in this for normal...
Anyway! I did leave a path that I felt provided the open space I wanted...a wider path from the sidewalk to the house and a smaller one around the edge of the yard that I thought kids would like since the taller bushes provided some cover and made it seem like a secret path. I put stepping stones up the middle of both paths and attempted to plant green carpet (Herniaria) in the open areas which never did very well. Eventually I decided I didn't want the green there anyway so I mulched with mini redwood chips. This is the second winter that I've had to rake leaves off the path (there is a big ornamental pear in the middle of all this) and it just isn't working. The chips get raked up and while I try to pile it all up to compost it still leaves bare dirt which gets washed out when it rains. So the plan is to add more stepping stones to fill in more of the path...we'll see how that works!