Tiny garden discovered, tiny garden maintained

I've got a lot of different planting beds in my suburban garden: veggie beds, perennial beds, plantings of bamboo, huge ornamental grasses. Many of them are pretty large beds, but I've got some small areas too, like the planting pockets around the stream. My smallest "garden" though has to be the cracks between stones of my flagstone patios. I've never really thought about them as a garden until recently -- they've just been the gaps between the stones before.

Which is a strange oversight on my part, because I've put much effort into making these crevices more than just something to hopefully not trip on. I've planted mosses, thymes, and most recently sedum in the hope of softening and greening up these hard stretches of rock.

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What do you do when it rains?

We've finally had a few days in a row of decent, soaking rains (after three weeks or more of warm and dry) so that's great for the plants! The problem is it's Saturday and I'm eager to spend some time in the yard. What can do you when the ground is muddy and everything is wet?

Take photos? Yes of course, since overcast days provide better lighting than harsh sunlight in many cases, but that's not the answer I'm looking for.

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Cleanup: the much-neglected veggie bed

My vegetable bed is the only fenced-off part of my yard. It's really a necessity because of the rabbits, woodchucks, deer, and other critters. It's also the place that I store several potted plants over the winter, and is surely one of the most-neglected areas of my yard in the Fall.

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