It was a wonderful day here too. I worked at cleaning up my existing beds. Those I got to are looking better now, but I still have several areas to do. I have sprouts in (I think) 11 of my 20 jugs. The green wave is coming your way very soon.

Karen

Up here in northern Michigan I still have snow :-(
-B

I was looking outside today and analyzed where my flats are. Maybe the reason I still don't have sprout is because of their location. It's 10 am and sunlight is still being blocked by my house. I noticed yesterday that it receive sunlight at 1pm. What do you think folks?

Oh, it's in the west side near north corner.

Hi v1rtu0s1ty,

Reading your comment I am gathering that you are working on creating some new flower beds by replacing lawn, which if true is great. Great for the environment and you as well.

I did this back breaking work last year but to a lesser degree by using the lasagna flower bed technique.

Have you tried it before?
Maybe you will achieve faster results.

Happy gardening!!

I'm getting used to it. I can make 7ft x 20 inch by 8 inch thick in 15 to 20 mins. It's totally back breaking especially when turning it upside down.

Oh, the bed already exists. I'm just making it more wider/bigger.

I will try the lasagna flower bed technique this fall.

Old pic
{{gwi:50144}}

Today's pic but taken in the morning. In the evening, I completed 21 sqft more. :)
{{gwi:370051}}

Hopefully, 90% of the seeds I ws'd will germinate. I have one this morning, Shasta Daisy :)

Oh congrats on the sprout and the hard work. I hate turning sod.

Wow!
You did get a lot done and your edges look so clean! I tried to go out and play the yesterday but still to chilly. Tried to pull up a few old flowers but roots still frozen guess I,m rushing but spring is coming. lol

Annette

wow, that a some land- I am so envious of all possibilities- so much space- good luck with WS, you sure are in right place, will be able to fill it in no time ;)
Good job with beds, nice curvy edges, I did same trick with hose when was laying out mine.

VERY nice work! Love that birdhouse!!! Where can I get me one of those?

Oh, and that rock (boulder) is a GREAT touch! I think I'll get the DH to go to the rockpile and get me one of those.

I'm sure you know this, but leave a few places in your beds where you can stand to plant, weed, etc. Don't try to plant every square inch. These won't be walking paths, just places to put your feet. No kids, dogs, or wives allowed. ;)

Great job V1! Love the curves and it looks to me like you have lots of room to expand. I see the pictures of people's beds on this forum and often see lots of grass. I am envious - getting rid of just grass would be so much easier than what I deal with. I have a sizable lot (1.25 acres), but it was VERY overgrown with invasive plants and lots of canopy trees, minimal grass. So I have had to clear garden beds - dig up/weed wrench lots of weeds and invasive shrubs, dig up tons of roots, hiring tree serve to remove large trees (lots of $$). Also backbreaking work.

Don's instant bed method does work well with plain old sod, although it is hard work. Lasagne is the by far the easiest way to make beds, but the slowest. I would start making future lasagne as soon as possible (yeah I know, when you can fit in the time), because it works best to let the beds decompose over a length of time. For me, I wait 6 months-1 year. And of course they decompose best over the warmer months.

V1rtu0s1ty
Being able to work in the beds is a BEAUTIFUL thing! We're not quite there yet here...ground still frozen in spots. But I'm starting to put down cardboard in those areas I want to "refresh". I think after the warm temps we're having this week, it won't be long before I'll be digging too! :-)

Linda

Just got home! Thank you so much folks!

GOOD NEWS! :) I see few more sprouts from other containers. So looks like they just needed a heavy bath and heat. Woohoo! All my worries are gone! Woohoo!

mmqchdygg, I just built the birdhouse out of OSB. I had scraps of it from my previous archway project. However, we've only seen a few birds visit it. :)

token, great idea about the small space where I can stand. I'll follow your advice! ;)

terrene, I'm hoping that only few grass will come back. They're like 6 to 8 inch deep buried. Ah, so it was Don's technique! Thanks Don for the great idea! :)

What I usually did is remove the top 1 inch that contains grass using square spade. It was quite tiring! Really tiring.

lindalana, I also used garden hose! :D

lblack61, glad it's getting warmer there as well. Have fun digging too!!! :)

Oh Neil,you are amazing!
Every thing lookes so nice.What a great job you have done on the curves,i like that a lot.
I was goingtoask the same thing about the bird house,first thing i thought,"Where did he get that birhouse"very nice indeed.
I bet you know exactly where every one of your plants are going to go don't you?
Not me,just a few.
I have more sprouts today also,i've not reported it yet,as i only have like oneor two in each container,execpt for my poppies,there are lots of them.

It is always fun to see what you will be doing next,nice pictures by the way.
cAROL

Ok folks, this is from another container. This isn't shasta daisy. The label that I put inside is facing the surface of the milk jug so I can't tell what plant it is.

{{gwi:370052}}

WOOOHOO!!!!!!

Oh, that potting mix is MG.

Thanks Carol!

About the plant's destination, I have assigned a few. I put them in a drawing so I can see how it's going to look like. The drawing contains the garden beds but on a smaller scale.

I still have more assignments to do. :) It will be much more easier for me now because last week, I downloaded pictures of the plants I ws'd. However, I still need to find out their height, FS or part shade, etc.

Below is my garden plan. Some aren't labeled yet. Hopefully, I'll be able to label them before the Tidal Wave of Sprouts arrives. {{gwi:285449}} hehehe.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:370050}}

Hi V1, I think that in using Donn's instant bed method, you don't bother to remove the top 1 inch of sod. You dig deep, and flip the entire clump upside down, so that the sod is at the bottom. Then you can spread compost, soil, mulch, or whatnot on top and plant into the bed.

I remember reading a thread explaining the method but can't seem to find it - maybe somebody else remembers.

Yep, that's what I did. However last year around June, I removed the top part. After 20 days, I had tons of weeds. Some grew 4 ft and trunk were 1" thick. I really had a hard time removing them. :D

Hopefully with this one, it'll just be few to none.

token28001,

The lavatera seeds you gave to me germinated. I saw 2 sprouts few minutes ago. I remember, these are annuals. Are they hardy annuals though?

Thanks!