Cliff's Notes

Now to get you up to speed on all the work that hubby Kyle and I have done over the past month...
When we moved in we had a beautifully tilled blank slate.  Cue the rain and Christmas busyness. These resulted in a sea of weeds, mostly oxalis which looks like clovers with bright yellow flowers and is impossible to kill.  I've read that people actually purchase this plant but I'm telling you now- Do not be that person.  You'll regret it forever.  It's incredibly invasive, drops thousands of seeds, and can regenerate if even a quarter of an inch of it is left in the ground.  Well, we didn't know all that so we proceeded to hack it into thousands of tiny pieces, pulling out whatever we could.  Then we decided that cement slab that sits right outside the back door was neither of sufficient size nor in a good locale for furniture so we went to The Home Depot and bought twelve-inch cement squares in grey and red and laid them down in a fun pattern over weed blocking cloth.  Now I learned the proper method of laying pavers from my dad but this is only an apartment and we weren't looking for a big investment.  It came out flat enough for our taste but you should have seen us stomping on the pavers trying to get them set.  Pure comedy.



 Next, I planted 55 gladiolus bulbs down the west side of the yard.  I have very dense clay soil but after adding a couple bags of soil amender my bulbs were happily resting in their new bed.  Over a three week period I amended and planted four beds of edibles on the east side of the yard.  I also potted a young Moro Blood Orange tree in a dwarf variety and named it Squirt.  (I don't have pets or kids so, yes, I named my tree.)  Here's what's growing:
Bed #1- tomatoes, spinach, and a variety of lettuces
Bed #2- bell peppers, swiss chard, carrots, and beets (I LOVE BEETS!)
Bed #3- zucchini, cantaloupe, and cucumbers
Bed #4- peas, broccoli, strawberries, and artichokes

Between the beds I laid down natural bark chips over newspaper to keeps the weeds out and to give me something other than mud to walk on.  I also set potted marigolds, ranunculus, and nasturtiums in between to help with pests.  Finally, on Kyle's most recent day off we tackled the always shady south-east corner of the yard, planting fuscia, gladiolus, impatiens, and coleus with marigolds and pansies stretching into the sun. Phew!  All the planting is done for now.  So here are some pics of the results...





Before- just dirt and weeds



Aerial view from my bedroom window