Landscaping 101
Half a week home, and things are starting to be a bit more settled. The house is not quite back to normal, but I just couldn’t put off the overgrown flowerbed any longer. It just made me sad to see it like this. 
Yes, believe me, there are flowers hidden in that mountain of crabgrass, and today I started working on exposing them. The proper way to do this would be to dig out the whole bed, save the flowers, remove all the crabgrass and roots, and then replace the flowers. Unfortunately, it is too hot to do this at this time. The right time to do this is the spring, so for now, I will pull crab grass for the whole summer, and I will do the “right thing” come next spring.
I worked on this bed for about 7 hours today, and this is what it looks like now. 
You can see all the “stuff” I pulled out still on the sidewalk. I told you there were flowers in there!! The only problem is that there are not as many flowers present as I remember. I guess not all flowers can survive being strangled by crabgrass…go figure!! The most surprising missing item is a clump of chives. I say it is surprising, because I usually spend most of the summer trying to keep the chives under control, they keep trying to start new chive clumps.
So now what? I don’t know if I should put in more flowers, or just wait until next year after the purge? Oh well, I guess I will decide once the rest of the yard is cleaned up.
By the way, we have added a few new creatures to the house. Sara and Sean are the proud new owners of two mice, Onyx and Titch. Mungo is not quite sure what to make of these new creatures. He watches them sometimes, but he also spends a fair amount of time inhaling them and licking the cage. Needless to say, the mice are not left alone with him, YET!
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July 3rd, 2010 at 11:02 am
Welcome home Daniela!
Could not resist a gardening comment. My suggestion: Let the crab grass sprout again – you undoubtedly did not get all the roots – ( remove any perennials you want to save in pots) spray all with round up, let die down and then dig the bed deep and get all the roots out. Crab grass can smoother pretty much anything when left unchecked. Then you can replant next spring.
Hope to see you some day at some vet place!
carol, Bailey and ( unfortunately) angel Fancy.
July 9th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Thanks Carol, I will consider this. The problem is that the neighbors yard is basically all crabgrass, and it lies just across the fence from the flowerbed. I still don’t really know what I should do. I wonder if a barrier could be put between the neighbors crabgrass and my flowerbed?? What do you think?
July 18th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Yes you could put a barrier in- I would use 9×16(?) concrete blocks and sink them (long side down)along the fence after of course cleaning out all those roots first! A lot of work but would probably help as it appears your neighbors sidewalk is against the fence.