I dug a rain garden the other day. Well sorta.  See, we have a pool in the back yard. a 35 year-old, leaky, drainy in-ground pool.  Sure it's nice on the hot days, but the maintenance is extraordinary, let alone the cost, and don't get me started on safety issues with an 18-month-old.  We got a couple estimates to fill it in with dirt, and decided to just go ahead & keep it for another year.  

Oh it's not that bad.  The problem with it, though, is that it is not the highest point in the yard like it should be, so in the spring, when it rains, it fills up with grody brown yard water & floods.  So I attempted to dig out a low spot to try to encourage all that rainwater to pool up behind the little retaining wall I built.  I really hope the 5 years of work in the stormwater department at an engineering firm pays off and I did it right.  Only time will tell.  So in the meantime, I have some planting to do.  I think I will just throw a bunch of seeds down & see what happens.  I also fenced off a little area & planted some tomatoes, peppers, & eggplant. Eggplant? yes, eggplant. I will make some baba ganoush.

Abigail has been surprisingly good about staying away from the pool so far. She's a good girl. She likes to play in the dirt.  I love that about her.  She picks up a handful and pours it over the plants that I just planted.  I really don't mind.  I used to be so much more persnickety about things like that. What a drag it would be if I were still that way.