I try to do it all at one time. I weed, cultivate the soil a bit with my little gardening fork, fertilize and plant all at one go. Since I have to do everything sitting on the ground, this works well for me. I don't have to worry about getting up and down all the time (sometimes calling DH for assistance), and I have a little wagon that I put everything into. Then I just pull it along as I "scoot" down the row. Looks weird, but what the heck - as long as I get it done, right? The neighbors sometimes stop by to make sure I'm not down and needing help to get up. LOL

I fixed one of the front beds and dug out the Black Moudry grass before the clumps got too big and put in some daylilies, then scatter-sowed the ground with alyssum and California poppies. I'd rather have flowers than weeds so it was easy to toss on a few packs of seeds and water them in.

The backyard has two beds already cleared and mostly planted with spring veggies, I've got some free areas in those beds that I can use for some herbs or something, don't know what yet. The front yard is done 'cept for some digging out and transplanting in the hellstrip, and it needs its first mowing.

The backyard is a disaster zone, the nor'easter blew through here and flipped my canopy and that had to be replaced, the bbq doesn't lite but to shoot flames up behind one of the handles so that must be replaced, the dogwoods are dying and they need to be pruned as I can't take them down yet. The ivy is overgrown, the shrubs need trimming, the dandelions are anything but dandy and they are everywhere.

But can't complain too much, the air is sweet and warm and the trees and shrubs are loaded with singing birds and the fruit trees are about to bloom. Ahhh. Early spring. Loads of work but its good works and pays off with a lovely garden to show for it.

I did the same yesterday. I had a few sprouts to plant out and clean the beds. I work as I go but there were many weeds I just had to get rid of and some plantings I did not get before winter set in.

My hands are showing wear today from the work. I need some good comfy gloves. I really hate wearing them but my hands do not bounce back like they used to and they are dry and need help!

I have so much to plant out. I am overwhelmed. I may just give away some plants now. I am pooped looking at them sometimes!

Karen

Go ahead and add my back to all the other aching ones since it appears everyone was similarly engaged over the weekend. I hauled firewood inside and kept the woodstove going while I pulled weeds, raked leaves out of the flowerbeds and dumped the detritus over the hill behind the garage. I have a collapsible nylon barrel I can drag along as I go. Even though I have a little rolling cart to sit on, my back just does not adjust to the strain of lifting, twisting, pulling and bending.
But I got the two huge plain green hosta dug out of the Burgess Oval on the north boundary. I left them on the mulch so the wind could dry the soil, then went back with my hatchet and divided them. Butterfly bush is going in their place along with lots of other WS stuff.
I dug evening primrose out of an area on the south side of the house--baptisia is going in their place. I'll eventually get that entire area free of grass and weeds now I've got something to plant there.
Karen - my hands are in tough shape too after everything. Why is it I don't even hesitate to put the gloves on when I haul firewood or put wood in the stove but when I garden, I want the dirt on my hands? One of the aspects of WS that appealed me was the opportunity to have my hands in dirt through the winter months. That was 460 milk jugs ago. TG for Advil. Yesterday I was moving like someone twice my age and people don't live that long.
Today at work someone asked if I could help fill her flowerbeds. Oh yeah!! Fresh meat!! Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?

Add me to the list, but I so enjoy it. I usually sit here at this time of year and read about all of you working the gardens while I'm looking at mud and some pockets of unmelted snow, but this year is SOOOOO different.

I've been at it for 3 weeks now, especially on the weekends, and sometimes the temperatures here have gone to your 70F. What a treat to have several huge gardens weeded and mulched with compost and shredded leaves.

No planting of sprouts yet. They are still too tiny but there's many of them and I'm seeing room for all of them as I go along.

Could be one great gardening year so my hips and back are going to have to put up and shut up!! LOL!

Ah spring, the time of year when we find out how out of shape we are! It was a beautiful weekend, I wore a t-shirt and pair of shorts all weekend while I worked at turning a compost pile, adding fresh grass clippings to it as hubby mowed, and weeding my iris bed and putting down bark dust. Today I can hardly move. I loved every minute of it.

I can so totally relate. I have spent the last three days weeding the flower beds. Granted I get a late start around 2 or so and work until about 5-6 but it is alot of work. And my back is killing me. But once every thing is planted I will love it. I was able to move my balloon flowers today, actually they were dug up yesterday and replanted today. Those suckers have some LONG tap roots.

I am not able to plant out tomorrow so on wednesday I will start planting out. I have taken the lids off of the malvas and one of the coreopsis which are what I will start out planting.

My jugs with petunias some are so heavily seeded there is no space between them. And some of my flax is almost to the top of the jug.I will be a very busy girl these coming weeks, between my sons wedding and the plants I will be always ont he go.

Paula

yeah I do love getting the hands dirty! Gloves just don't feel right. I have tried them but always end up taking them off. I use my hands to pat the soil around the plants and I need to feel the dirt!

I came in Sunday and my hubby said something about how dirty my hands were

Karen

Karen, I am bad about not using gloves as well.
{{gwi:383688}}
Tammy

LOL, Tammy. But I think your nails are cleaner than mine after I'm done playing with my seedlings.

Are wild onions the worst to get out or what? And they seem to spread so fast and worm their way in between everything.

Caryl

I agree on the wild onions. I have never had so many in my beds before. Also some kind of weed that comes up in long leafed rosettes, that is everywhere. My large 60 ft long bed is a mess. I am getting ready to head back out there again.
TAmmy

Tammy, I think your hands look better than mine :)

Cute picture though. I have really dry hands now though!

I plan to plant out tonight and tomorrow night. My kid has a baseball tournament this weekend and we will be gone a lot!

I plan to plant in the dark if I have to!

Karen

Those wild onions:

My first year - - grabbed, tugged, plopped all the "green" in my weed bucket, without realizing I needed to get the buried onion bulb out, or they would just grow more green! Battled them ALL season.

2nd and 3rd year - - used a hand spade to dig individuals and clumps up. A lot of work, and was usually doing it when it had already gotten hot. Made me very cranky.

This year - - have found an easier way. Get them all out really EARLY in the season and use one of those tools they sell for wrenching out dandilions. Long thin forked blade, slide it in deep a couple of times around the onion (s) and then pull on the greens with one hand while you pop upwards with the tool. Works best after a deep soaking rain that loosens the soil. Onion comes out pretty easily, bulb and greens.

Hopes this helps...
Nancy

man, and i was just trying to figure out where i wanted to plunk in these wild onions i had dug up from a nearby wooded area... :P i love them!

Ladies, I share your pain... crab/bermuda grass is my vile weed of choice!!! It is a royal pain in the !!! This past winter I attempted to do my homework a.k.a. read, read, read, there's gotta be a better way organically speaking.....
I have a huge, huge compost pile thats been cooking for over a year now...I happened upon a Ruth Stout book while working at Good Will. (I work 2 jobs so time to weed the flower/garden patch is at a bare minimum..) Anyhow I snatched the book up after waiting the proverbial waiting time period that it's supposed to sit upon the shelf. I know folks think that employees of Good Will automatically have the first choice but we actually don't. We have to wait at least a week before we can actually buy any donated goods. Anyways back to my little story...I read the Ruth Stout book it....How could anyone pass on a treasure like that..????? Now I've become a mulch queen, not a weeding queen ever since!
She's all about hay.... hmm well I've got rotted goods... about the equivalent if you keep on reading she never composts just uses more of a hay layer. Me I've got compost up the wazoo so I just use that. I'm on a mission to be weeding a whole lot less cause my time is used up by the time I have any free moments to spare....my motto here is C'mon lottery!! !chuckle!
bgrow_gardens

Nancy and all...
We have this weed spreading from my neighbor's yard, I'm not sure I remember what its called, but I did look it up last year and found out it is one very hard to get rid of. It spreads by runners underground and is a total horror. I layed down cardboard and got a half truck load of shredded mulch delivered. We spent 2 days putting it down in the pathways of my veggie beds. I'm hoping it helps. The neighbors back yard is full of this stuff, and they are nice people and don't have much time to deal with yard stuff. But its spreading into MY YARD!!

Alberta

Have you thought of looking at the weeds as an early harvest? Have a look at these urban forager posts at the New York Times. Also a bonus link to edible weeds by someone who went on a foraging walk in Brooklyn (with the author of the Urban Forager blog). Even if you would never trust your own foraging skills, the article turns our ideas about what's a weed upside down.

http://www.lucidfood.com/blog/advocate-for-the-weeds/

Here is a link that might be useful: Dandelion jelly recipe!

This is my 1st year gardening in the US. We recently bought a house and I've been WS'ing. It's too soon to plant out yet.

My gardens are a mess, full of weeds and the soil is terrible. I plan on buying topsoil (maybe the mushroom soil) and mulch from a local nursery. Do you guys use weed prevention material? Or should I just put the new soil in, plant then mulch?

Thanks :)

I've taken advantage to this beautiful false summer to get a jump on the garden-replaced edging on the front bed ( I actually DID wear gloves to move the bricks!) & started planting peas & greens-WS & direct sown. I too, hate gloves vs dirt on my hands, so now starts the season that my nails will never be really clean until fall! My neighbor says it's just "Gardener's Hands" & that's good enough for me too! I've been lucky with the soreness so far-all I can think of is that I started a Yoga class & maybe the stretching has helped! Today I'm back inside though-cool, breezy & rainy again. Yukky, but things were getting so dry that I really can't hate the rain, even if it IS the weekend!

I hear all of you about the crippling soreness and the dry hands! I have about a dozen pair of gloves (thinking if I found something comfortable, I'd be more inclined to wear them). Nope! I too, simply love the feel of the soil!

Our weather has been so nice the last couple of weeks that I've worked myself horribly. I was so glad when we finally got some rain---just so I could rest!

Problem is; the rest made my sore muscles worse, so I went back out in the light rain and weeded! (Made the weeding easier, anyhow!)

We have a frost advisory tonight after a week or more of highs in the mid 80's. Sheesh! Oh, well. At least the temps will drop back to normal after tonight.

Maybe I'll take up yoga next winter....

This year I too am using more mulch. But I'm using newspaper and/or paper bags under the mulch. I've started applying Preen to the areas that I haven't mulched yet. I've never used it, so I'm anxious to see if it helps much. Supposedly, it prevents weeds from germinating, but it does not affect existing plants.

I agree with the newspaper. I had to use the weed plastic to smother some crown vetch. this year I am working on removing it. the soil under it is pretty but there are some plants and grass gorwing in it...a big mess. I had no choice though the vetch was a killer a couple years ago and I left the weed plasic on 2 seasons with mulch on top.

I will use newspaper or cardboard now with mulch or dirt on top. no more weed barriers for me.