Garden of Mine: End of an Era

The Cliff Notes version: Everything but the mint died.

The longer version: It started out like most other gardening
years of the recent past. We have raised beds and a compost
tumbler so the soil is rich and easy to work with. I planned
for a big salad garden and a not so intense tomato-pepper-cuke
garden for later on.

Everything got planted in on time and well. Then the weirdness
began:

the spinach never ever even sprouted, in spite of two different
plantings, two different types;

the basil never ever even sprouted, in spite of the fact that
for years and years running, it's been the best crop in the
yard;

it hardly ever rained this season, and I hardly ever watered
to compensate. And now, only the mint remains. Perhaps I will
turn it into my science experiment. Hypothesis: plants need
steady water above and beyond what is available to them in the
water table during a very dry season.

Also, I was busy with baseball, CD wrap-up in the studio, a
beach trip here and there, and lite entertaining. I let the
gardening tasks fall right off my to-do list. But I've never
done that before. I find myself trying to figure out if I should
tear it all up and put grass seed down in its place, or only
a major fraction of it. Or better yet, replace it with an
in-ground fiberglass pool. Or, perhaps more easily accepted by the rest of
the family, a batting cage.

In either case, I think that redwood colored swingset in the
middle of the back yard will also have to go. The child was
on that less than his mom was in the garden. Hard to imagine
the yard without those things, but I'm sure we'll find other things
to fill the space with.