OK, here's the post from Sunday. Huzzah:

Notes on Urban Gardening

As I mentioned earlier, perhaps our house is being mistken for a crack house because of the overwhelming amount of weeds in our front parkway yard. Originally I was thinking I didn't want to put down sod, as that would be a pain to maintain. No, we'd plant a bunch of ground cover, and that would be sufficient. I discovered, however, that unless you by huge amounts of ground cover -- dozens, maybe hundreds of plants -- your ground is not, in fact, covered. Instead you have tiny little plants in this vast sea of dirt.

But it does not stay just dirt: The weeds come in to take over. I was overwhelmed, and let it go. Wendy is concentrating on the back yard (she actually got some beans to grow amongst the morning glory!), so the front bit is mine. Then we kept getting mistaken for a crack house, and I started to take it personally. Hence, the calvacade of weeding today.

In mid-weed, as I started to fill the second huge bag with noxious plants, I was trying ti figure out what my Public Television Gardening program would be called. The Pyrrhic Victory Garden? The Agony of Defeat Garden? They Can't Do That In The Garden? Don't Try This In The Garden? What the Hell is She Thinking Gardening? Abandon Hope, All Ye Plants Who Enter Here?

Nevertheless, here is some of my hard-won gardening knowledge. May it make you stronger.

1. Weeding, when done in sufficient quantity, is an aerobic activity


2. It also qulaifies as resistance exercise.


3. Oh, my back. I have a feeling that tomorrow i will be complaining about my lumbago, and I don't even know what lumbago is. (Note on Monday -- Back and calves are complaining. Go figure.)


4. Weeds are easier to pull when the soil is moist.


5. But not when it starts to rain, as everything gets slippery


6. Gardening gloves be damned, you're still going to get dirt under your fingernails.


7. In addition to the usual weed suspects, an urban garden -- especially one between the sidewalk and the street -- will sprout:
   
   • Valvoline bottles
   
   
   • Prestone bottles
   
   
   • Bottles that had contained alcohol (I personally seem to be getting a bumper crop of MGD and Corona, with the occasional exotic bloom of Heinekin and Barcadi)
   
   
   • Fast food containers
   
   
   • Candy wrappers
   
   
   • Cheetos and Ruffles bags
   
   
   • Random bits of plastic wrapping C
   
   
   • igarettes/cigarette packs
   
   
   • Bullet casings (joy!)
   
   


8. No matter what you do, the weeds (both leafy and of a man-made variety) will come back.


9. Hostas are apparently very difficult to kill, even with not-so-benign neglect. I officially love hostas.


10. Other things identified as "hardy" may not, in fact, be so.


11. Mulch is your friend. At this point, I'm also thinking that concrete might be my friend.


12. Get a yard boy

Speaking of yard boys -- Tripp, I think I deleted all the bugs, and we're left with features in the front bit.
If you want to play inthe dirt some more, I have a large expanse waiting for you.