The War Part 2: The First Line of Defence

It was almost bearable this weekend so I ventured in the yard to clean things up a bit, survey any bunny damage, and begin taking action to prevent further bunny damage. The first thing I noticed was than many of the perennials that I planted last year seem to be showing signs of life and the daffodils are starting to come up. I placed stakes over all of the perennials so that I don't mistakenly dig them up alter (yes, I've made this mistake before).

The only bunny damage I found was on the lilacs and hollyhocks. Last year, I remember that the rabbits took a chunk out of the budding phlox as well. For most of the garden, I spread around blood meal. This was easily found at the local garden store and was suggested by several of the other housebloggers. I'll let most of the perennials go with this as its only protection. I'll let you know how things are after a week.
For the lilacs, I am taking extra precautions. I decided to build a wire fence around the two lilacs I have. they are both beginning to bud but most of the buds have been chewed off. It would be nice if they would get a chance to grow as they seem a little "stunted" now. They haven't looked "right" since the bad storm last summer but hopefully a nice spring will help them rebound.
I also took a survey of the garden and the garlic seems to be doing o.k. We bought a bunch of red garlic last year and planted it with my daughter in late fall. Unfortunately, the fall was pretty mild so it started to sprout. It is all sprouting now but the tips of some of the leaves have a bit of frost damage. It should be fine and as things are now, we should end up with 28 heads of garlic.
Now is when a few of you can say, "I told you so". I left the morning glories all over the fence and they have all dried out. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, they have all gone to seed and they are dropping everywhere. I am not concerned too much except that my compost pile is right beneath it. Why do I have the feeling that we're going to see morning glories popping up everywhere this year?
Finally, I took a survey of the most serious and time-sensitive project that I have this spring: my garage. My garage looks like shit. It has ugly windows, ugly siding, ugly doors, and the eaves are shot. The rafters beneath the fascia all seem to be fine but the fascia all needs to be replaced and I think I am going to go ahead and replace the soffit as well. My dream is to put in new windows, change out the door, fix the siding and trim and paint it to make it look more like a small cottage than an ugly garage. We'll see how much energy I have and how many sunny weekends we get in the next few weeks.