Onions require a lot of water until about two weeks before maturity. I also add nitrogen lightly on a weekly basis while the onions are in their "greening" stage. It may pay you this fall to take samples of your soil and have a soil test done so you can make necessary amendments and be ready to go next spring.

I was on my way today down to a ditch that has some old growth irises and wild taro when I found some ferns and philos growing in a vacant lot and some kind of plant growing in the ditch so I just got that and planted it for now. Looks good but don't know if the fern and philo will handle bog and full sun.

If you choose the right plants, probably. I wouldn't plant anything that likes a moisture-retentive soil and tons of humus but anything that likes sharp drainage and that is drought tolerant might actually love it. You might look for plants native to sandy soils, and check out Beth Chatto's book _The Gravel Garden_ for inspiration. (To my mind, the latter is inspiring no matter what one's conditions!)

This is probably not what you want to hear, but speaking as someone else with puny digs who is going through this myself, you may need to work a wee bit on adjusting your thinking process. With the average tiny little house usually about the only way you're going to get "airy and spacious" is with major construction. :-) This is a big problem we small-house folks have to tackle because the rooms in the magazines and TV shows are almost always large and usually very open simply to make it easier to film/photograph, but the usual advice to look at these resources for inspiration often puts this unconscious bee in our bonnets that that's what WE'RE supposed to want and it fosters dissatisfaction and frustration. This is exasperating, to say the least! So maybe you can review those photographs and try to pick out exactly what the specific elements are that you're getting the biggest charge from - is it pale colors, is it fluttery lightweight window treatments, is it slipcovered furniture? - and see how you can incorporate those elements into the space you have rather than trying to make it into something it physically cannot be. Oddly enough, I have the absolute opposite reaction to the "mega-mirror" practice as bronwynsmom does - instead of visually expanding the space, I think it makes a small room look even MORE cluttered and too-much-enough-already, since what's already there has now become twice as much stuff! Although she's 100% right about using fewer, somewhat larger items (but still in scale to the room - we had to relocate a couch and chair we already had and really liked when we moved in here because they are out of proportion with the small space, too massy and squatty, and we're probably going to have to get rid of them when we can afford to replace them) instead of a whole slew of small things. This is especially important IMO when it comes to artwork. So many people are afraid of putting a big piece of art in a small room so they put up some weenie little bits and bobs around instead "so it doesn't overpower the room", which ends up looking very timid. One of my biggest decorating pet peeves is a wall with one little 8x10" framed something-or-other stuck in the middle of it - argh! I like framing several smaller things in one biiiig frame using mats with multiple openings so it has more oomph, but doesn't look as cluttery as just hanging a bunch of separately-framed little things together (which takes a knack to do right).