I've resorted to the unthinkable - to herbicide. Not against anything I love, but against the gout weed. It is spreading like crazy in the front yard and no matter how much of it I pull out it just comes back. So I broke down and bought some spray to use on ivy to get rid of it. We'll see how it does. The spray says that it will wilt in a day and then die over a few weeks. From reading around online I know that I'll need to do several applications, and probably keep at it for a year or so, but I'm just hoping to keep it at bay at this point. It's covering everything.

Well I just needed to get that off of my chest. I so didn't want to resort to weed killers but I have no other choice. I don't have the time to try to dig out the whole yard.

So anyways, in other news everything is looking well. My potatoes are coming up, and the snow peas are a few inches tall. Cabbage and bok choi are still tiny but getting there. No action yet from the beans. Artichokes are looking good, as is my lettuce. The strawberry in the planter is doing very well and has a few dozen flowers. Looks like I'll have some strawberries soon!

In the front everything (other than the gout weed - Muahahahaha) is looking good. The broom is still blooming and is quite fragrant. All the other potted plants are doing well. Debbie gave me a coleus that I have planted on the porch. It is a really cool looking one - I'll take some pictures of it soon.

The broom is in full bloom! I've uploaded new pictures of it into the image gallery. I finally got it to stand up - at least for the time being. I was trying to use bamboo sticks, but they would just end up bending and the broom would be laying across the path the next day or so. So I found an old small but sturdy trellis in the back shed that I stuck in the ground and attached the broom to. Hopefully that will hold it up.

In other news, I planted lots of more seeds outside yesterday: edamame, red noodle long beans, cucumbers, and some more lettuce. The potatoes are starting to come up, and as it turns out I missed a few in the bed that I grew the potatoes in last year ( the bed that will be the tomatoes this year ) and they were popping up as well. So I moved them over to the potato bed. It looks like my carrots are starting to come up too.

I also broke out the weed-wacker and went to town on the weeds getting a start in the back yard. I'm determined to keep them at bay this year. Hehe. We'll see.

I also transplanted more of my seedlings into bigger pots. Mainly tomatoes and peppers. I'm getting worried about my tomatillo's though. I only have 1 (out of the 6 seeds that I planted! (well, the cats did eat one...)) that is doing well, and I have 1 that is so sad and tiny. I'm giving it some TLC in hopes it will do OK, but it may not. I think I need at least 2 of them to get fruit, so I'm hoping for the best. Anyone know where I can pick up a live tomatillo plant?

What else... hmmm. Oh yeah, what I thought was my Zulu Prince daisy was just a plain old daisy-like weed. Doh. Oh well. Oh! I had my first salad from the garden yesterday. I picked some of the mesculin mix from one of the Ikea planters that I have in the back yard. It was yummy. Nothing like freshly picked salad greens.

Last night I came down with a fever and today I took the day off of work because I feel like total crap. But I figured that I would take a few minutes to upload the photos that I took over the weekend. They are all in the 2008->April gallery.

Most of my seedlings are getting really big. I spent a few hours over the weekend transplanting them into larger pots. Some of the tomato plants are getting quite large and will be ready to go outside soon. I'm thinking around the first week of May will be good to put things out. The weather is really warm and at night the lows are about 50, so I think the danger of frost has passed. Go global warming! Hehe.

I'm in the process of hardening off my cabbage plants that I started indoors. The ones that I planted outside directly are just starting to come up. So are most of the other things that I planted outside: shallots, spinach, snow peas, lettuce, and bok choi. No sign from the potatoes yet, but I think they took a few weeks last year before they popped their heads up.

The stuff in planters is doing great as well. Both artichokes (the one in the planter and the other that I just moved to the side of the yard) seem to have survive transplanting. Actually they didn't wilt or seem to go into shock at all. The strawberries that I have in a planter as well are starting to get some flowers. The lettuce is doing great too - I should be able to have a salad from them by next week. Yum!

In the front yard, most things are doing great. Unfortunately so is the gout weed. I think that either later in the summer or next year I'll need to rip up the front yard and put down weed block to try to stop it. It gets worse and worse each year no matter how much I try to pull it out.

I'll take some more pictures again this weekend, probably the last for April.

Yesterday turned out to be a really nice day outside, which kinda sucked because I had to spend most of the day indoors working on an application for my Distributed Systems class. But I did manage to get outside and do a tiny bit. I planted some bok choi seeds in the back yard, watered all my seeds, and took some pictures. Enjoy!

Yes - two weeks since an update, but nothing much has been going on. The tree guys came this week and trimmed down the overhanging holly tree in the back yard, so I was finally able to start planting my beds in the back yard yesterday. I planted my purple and yellow fingerling potatoes in one bed. In the bed next to them I planted my cool weather crop seeds: snow peas, spinach, lettuce, shallots, and cabbage.

I also finally moved the artichoke. Actually I moved both artichokes (there were two). The smaller of the two went into the biggest planter that we have. The larger went into the not-yet-developed side bed along the fence bordering our next door neighbors.

As for my seeds - they are all doing well. Most things have come up. My tomatillo's aren't doing so hot, so I may need to re-plant those seeds. But other than that most of my seeds are doing well. Some of my tomato plant are about 6 inches tall at this point!

The front yard is doing great as well. The Zulu Prince daisy is getting a bunch of buds on it. The hosta's and lily-of-the-valley are starting to come back.

I have misplaced our camera, but hopefully it will be found soon so I can take some more pics.

I'm very sad to say that my week of vacation is now over and I am due to head back to work in 45 minutes. Sigh. I did get a lot accomplished however. The entire front yard, all three beds and the porch, have been cleaned out and re-mulched. I also started all of my seeds, and have filled the porch with spring flowers. I also started a few planters in the back yard with various types of lettuce and a planter of strawberries. Four of my five vegetable beds are ready for planting.

Hopefully the guys coming to trim the trees in the backyard will call me shortly. They could not guarantee that the workers would not step on my beds, so I'm not planting anything until they are done with the work. I'm hoping it is sometime this week. I need to plant my potatoes, snow peas, lettuce, and spinach soon.

The two most major remaining items are getting the last vegetable bed ready (I need to move the artichoke that is in the bed somewhere - it gets way too big) and to build an arch support over one of the other beds. But that's not too bad.

So I think that so far I have a pretty good start for the season. It's the last day of March and a lot of the garden is ready. And I have taken 69 photographs of the garden so far. That's a record for March. We'll see if I keep up with it (and this blog) for the rest of the season. It's easy to keep up with it when I don't have work or school, and since both are starting back up this week my life will resume its normal hectic pace.

Oh well. Back into the land of technology. At least when I get home from work/school I now have a pretty front yard to greet me and I won't feel like a slacker for not taking care of the front gardens. :)

The end of my vacation week is drawing near :( . The weather over the last two days was kind of crappy, but today is a beautiful spring day. Over the last two days I took care of my seedlings inside and did some other stuff around the house, but today I'm back outside getting some garden work done in the backyard.

So far I have prepared the soil in 4 of the 5 beds, cleaned the herb bed, laid down some more landscape fabric (and put some rocks down too but I only have a few bags right now), and leveled a small hill that was in the middle of the yard. Whew!

Right now I'm just taking a short break but I will be heading out to do a little bit more. I have a few plants that we picked up at Primex this week that need to go into some pots on the porch. Hopefully I'll take a few more pictures soon too.

Yesterday I finished up cleaning in the front yard. I cleaned up the main yard: trimmed the plants, pruned the bushes, picked up dead leaves, cut back ivy, and mulched a lot. I also got around to cleaning out the herb bed in the back yard.

I also took some new pictures of the cleaned out beds and my blooming plants. Check them out!

Don't worry that it now looks so barren in the front yard. That will quickly change. Every year there is a war between the gout weed, ivy, and the variegated strawberry vine that lives out there. I simply mulched over most of them, but after a good rain the mulch will fall below the ivy and hopefully block out some of the gout weed. But I have long given up on getting rid of that. I just hope that the mulch helps keep some of it at bay until the tree comes back and shades over the whole yard.

I'm now on my official week off from work to try to get some gardening done. I take off this week every year since I'm off from school as well. So I've been working on cleaning up the front beds and yard, and I'm starting to get the backyard ready as well.

In the front, I planted some more pots with English daisies, marigolds, and alyssum. I'm also trying some seeds on the porch. I know it is probably too early but I just threw some seeds in pots to see if they will make it. I planted a pot each of snapdragons, zinnias, nasturtiums, and cat nip (in a hanging pot of course!). I also just finished cleaning out the front bed by the sidewalk. Whew.

In the back yard, I've started to cut down some weeds that I let get way too large last year. I'm also starting to lay down more of the weed block paper for the paths. I've bought 10 bags of rocks so far over the last few days and still need tons (probably literally) more. I picked up some cool galvanized steel planters from Ikea and I've planted three of them now all with lettuce. One has a mesclun mix, one is the "Drunken Frizzy Headed Woman" lettuce, and the other is a head type that my friend Bernie gave me last year to try. It has been grown in his family for generations and it is very tasty.

I picked up a PH meeter at Home Depot so I can test the beds in the back. I had a mix-it-yourself type kit last year but I could not find it. Hopefully this thing works well - it would be a lot easer to use that dissolving those pills in containers and mixing it up with dirt.

Finally, some of my seeds are starting to sprout (Check out the pics below!). They are mostly my tomatoes and tomatillos, but I have a photo of my cabbage that is starting as well.

I stopped up at my parents house last night and picked up my Jung's order. So tonight I planted:

- Mr. Stripy Tomato
- Black Brandywine Tomato
- Tumbler Hybrid Tomato
- Red Peter Peppers
- Cabbage Babies Triplet Mix

There has not yet been activity from the seeds I planted before, but that was only on Monday so they still need a few days. Did I mention I was anxious?