Hi Kim, welcome to the Junk Yard, a great place to check out everyone's projects and chit chat about, well, junk that has been turned into a fantastic garden piece. I plan to visit Omaha, NE in early fall for the birth of my first granddaughter. That's one State I've never been to so I'm looking forward to seeing the sights also. I don't mosaic but several forum folks do and you can also check out the "mosaic forum" - in my opinion, one of the best is "Slowmedown." She has some awesome pieces in her garden. Have a wonderful time coming and checking the forum to see who's been up to making what and join in on the fun. Sal

If there is an alternative to scrapping the whole thing and starting over, I'd be interested. Bunch of people around me have very full lawns that are meticulously mowed, trimmed and edged. And by full I mean full of weeds. Weeds that look like grass, weeds that look like salad greens, weeds that look like flowers. But it's all at the same height with perfect 90 degree edges. That's an option. Looks like the lawn was really not maintained for a long time. For every weed you see there could be hundreds of weed seeds just waiting for the right conditions so I think you'd be better off laying sod.

1) Something you may feel is important for a newbie to know: Sow heavier than any commercial seed packet ever indicates. 2) Something you learned your first year: I use a modified milk jug flap - I turn the U upside-down like a doorway arch, so it opens like a drawbridge. The flap bends down to open. This allows the same improved access (instead of cutting the whole jug in half), but increases access by allowing me to see what I'm doing in there! No ducking low to see under the flap. 3) Something you would not do again: I will never use salad containers again, not enough soil and they dry out too easy. Had much better germination rates in the milikjugs. 4) Something you have always done since you started WS because it worked out so well -- Am changing this to "this year's hopeful improvement" since it's only my second year: I like sowing more than one thing per container, and often have lots of things that I only have a small amount of seeds for -- so am using bottomless dixie cups as dividers inside the milk jugs. this way I can sow several columbines in the same container, and then they should all be ready to plant out at the same time. Last year I put several things in the same jug, but had to keep them of different types (can't put rudbeckia 1 in with rudbeckia 2 or they're gonna get blurred together with watering sliding seeds around) so knew what was what if they got blurred together. This made for needing to remove 1/4 of the container for planting out and the rest of the container not being ready; and having much more complicated records for the jugs. Now I have Columbine jugs, Astible jugs, etc. Nice. From last year-- Plant tag goes in with the seeds! Still listing container code numbers onto paper with a diagram of what seeds are where in each one...just in case of a container tumble later. Paint markers are great for labels. Make friends with someone who has 6 kids. They'll produce 5+ milk jugs per week for ya'. 5) Something you have learned over the years to be effective: Organize the process for speed. Don't even try to hit the "normal germination" instructions for each seed type. Just plant half as deep as the widest part of the seed, don't bother nicking/soaking anything; make the seed lists straight from my seed box and leave it alphabetized; only separate the list by "these are definately being sown" and "these might if I have time", perennials and annuals, just basic prioritization; chunk the Priority Perennials list into 1st third = do in December, 2nd third = do in Jan, 3rd third = do in Feb; Priority Annuals into 1st half = do in March, 2nd half = do in April. Get to the extras when they fit in. Gottta love the assembly line approach. I'll follow Stage-Rat's example -- that weed seed pot is a "to die for" idea!

Hello Neighbor and welcome! What part of Washington? My LCD is also broken on my Cybershot. Been taking pics on auto lately. Don't know what I have until downloading. Interesting photo. Silhouette almost looks fake. Very nice Eric