Gardening

My neighbor's yard is really shaping up--the sidewalk looks good, but the patio I don't like so much. In any event, I needed to step up my efforts for the cutest house on the block competition, even though I know the big work down the road will make me a shoo-in for that title. This recent activity next door called for some short term tactics that wouldn't be too far off course for the long term strategy, or be too much of a time or monetary resource drain. Bedding plants to the rescue!

We got lots of rain on Saturday, which I figured would help release the weeds from the rock-solid soil. It did, to a certain extent, and I pounced on Sunday. I pulled up lots of weeds from the bed that runs between the driveway and the fence, but there were some that still wouldn't budge. The soil in Redwood City is very heavy, dense clay, so it was a very muddy, messy task, but strangely satisfying.

I went to the garden center and got some gypsum and compost to mix into the bed for an interim fix. I know I'll need to do it again in a BIG way (with the help of more powerful equipment) when I deploy the big garden plan, but for now, I wanted to be able to plant some seasonal color. Mixing it in proved to be a challenge since the existing soil was like concrete about 2 inches down. So, I mixed it as best I could without damaging myself and then plugged in a flat of red and white pansies. They are so cute and perky and cheery, and just the trick to add some pop for the winter months:
As I left for work this morning, I caught myself talking to them, encouraging them to grow.

I am, maybe a wee bit crazy.
There are some weedy patches at each end of the bed that I just could not clear (see above, far right--the whole bed was like that), so I'll work on them again after the next rain, and will plug in some more pansies when the time comes.