Growin'?

I totally haven't updated anyone on the garden--but it's occupied most of our spare time recently. So much for the originaly purpose of whatsgrowing.com.

Anyway, the jungle looks downright tame these days, even though there is still an overwhelming amount of crabgrass in our front perennial bed. Tuesday, when I rushed home to continue the weeding of Sunday, I began to think that quite a bit of the grass is actually garlic. There is quite a bit of it. Last fall I pulled a few bulbs of it and placed them in the herb bed (as well as a number of flower heads, which now look mysteriously like chives), but I find more and more that as I weed along the edge of the bed (we have a goal of having a 6 inch border), people walk by and say, "are you growing garlic?"

Sunday was a major gardening day, with at least 7 full hours spent at work. At some point, L and I simultaneously got fed up with weeding and decided to attack the side beds. Now, let me explain: these aren't really beds. At some point someone tried to make them beds, but when we moved in last summer they were just piles of crap: concrete, rocks, and pulled weeds. Three of them. Last fall I dug one out and planted some winter cover that never really took off. The other two just sat as they were. Sunday, we decided to dig them out. After a while, we decided that the grass dividing the beds was useless, so now we have a 15 foot long pile of dirt along our side street, and a garbage pail full of turf and dirt drying out in the garage.

The plan is to have a self-seeding annual bed, but we are currently arguing about its shape. Should we have a couple of square beds seperated by rock or grass paths? Should we have an undulating bed set into lawn? Should it just be the megabed that it is now? L got a book from the library Monday(?) night: "Getting Your Lawn off Grass," so we have some plant ideas. I'm sort of hoping for a big paisley.

So right now we have blooming:
--daffodils
--daphne (a passerby identified this little shrub for us)
--violas (I think)
--the cherry tree across the street
--the camillia outside out window
--the last of the wacky winter flowers (no ID yet)

And coming up strong are:
--tulips and irisses
--lemon balm and mint
--recently discovered peonies are starting to unfold
--the aforementioned garlic
--the rhodies should go at any time (although they probably haven't been fed in several years, so they might bloom rather lazily)
--california poppies (this is a candidate for the annual bed)
--fancy fuzzy poppies

So that's whats growing.