Hi there... I may be wrong in telling from the picture but the lighter coloured broadleaf stuff looks like quackgrass to me. As an perennial weed, unfortunately, weed and feed wouldn't take care of it. Its one of the toughest weeds to eradicate. You could try either spot treatment with non-selective roundup and re-sod/seed. Or alternatively use a paintbrush to paint the blades of each leaf individually with roundup to try to eliminate it that way. PS - Nice home... love the colours.

Sorry about the late response, but I have been doing lots of other things. First thing that I notice is that there is very little space between the fence and the box. Will that be practical? If you don't want to do too much walking there, consider have vines fill that area (if cukes, then you might also install a trellis thing to make them easier to pick). Got that off my chest. Get some soil in there so that the worms can get going on it. It should be ready to plant in the early spring. Peas can go in early and they can be fixing some nitrogen in the soil so that you can follow with something like peppers. Lettuce and radishes can also go in early. When those items are done, then the soil will be warming up enough to get other veggies in the same spots. Are you considering using one of the small boxes for nothing but herbs? Dill will self-sow, so that will work; oregano, thyme, chives, sage, etc. are good to have and don't need a lot of attention. You can add the annuals as you need them. Put it on paper, see if it will work. Don't grow it unless you will eat it when ready or you are willing to preserve it some way. A comment about kids in the yard. My granddaughters were here over this past weekend and they were thrilled to hear me talk about what grows and what doesn't. Don't pretend that all is perfect. Let the kids know that nature can turn on you; later they will appreciate the lesson. The girls really liked smelling the herbs. So many different aromas that they are not exposed to when they shop with their mother. Take pictures of things as they grow so that you can remind the kids what things looked like 60 or 90 days ago. Jim

Sorry to hear of your loss. Normally, we don't recommend "package deals" here in GW~~but~~if I were to recommend one, it would be what you chose, with the exception of the steam oven, (I love my Elux Speed oven and can't fathom life without it!) Now why am I going along with your package deal? First, we've seen a lotta positive posts about the Thermador Freedom columns (except when they first came out). Second, we see a lot of positive posts about the Thermador induction cooktops~~alto to be truthful, just about any induction cooktop tends to get positive reviews. Not that familiar with the Thermador ovens, so I'll just pass on that one. Dishwasher, How can you beat the price? I would not worry about how you ":arrange" the freedom columns, go for what you both like. They are not likely to take a "fatal dump" in the near forseable future, and even if they did~~just replace it, or worse case something is a slightly different size~~~~a good cabinet maker can solve that problem for ya! We have the built in Jenn-air 48" fridge, for over 7 years now, trouble free, love it!!~~~~but had I known about those columns back in 2006, they might be sitting in my kitchen rather than the 48" JA. Good luck on your build and your pending appliance decisions! Gary

Bobby- you've gotten a lot of good suggestions so far. We are just about to break ground, and know exactly how you feel. We worked with an architect in conjunction with our builder and consider it money well spent. We spent DAYS looking at plans online as well as drawing out what we thought we wanted. It was not time wasted - we printed out exterior elevations that we loved as well as floor plans that we liked. We made notes on all of those pages as to what we liked or what we didn't, and when we met with the architect it was very helpful to him. It gave him a good idea of what we were looking for. Good luck to you both!