Container gardening, if the hour is late and you are fit to be tied for what to do, might be the best, cheapest, and most certainly quickest answer. DH and I moved into this house three years ago, and there really is no place suitable for a garden, except right up next to the house on the south and west sides, where the prior owners HAD rock, then barkmulched on top of it to cover the rock. Now, it's an ugly combination of rocks and bark, and since we both work full time and have three teenagers, time constraints didn't even allow for the "dig up and make it a real garden" option; besides, there are a few nice low shrubs that we didn't want to tear out. So, I did a little research and found the Earth Box. Did a little more research, and didn't begin to want to deal with their customer service, so continued to research. Found Garden Patch Grow Boxes, spoke with reps at customer service and felt pretty good about the company. Bought thirteen of them, and then found an Earth Box at a garage sale--great, this way I could compare. For the record, there is no comparison: the elasticized cover on the Earth Box (through which a gardener is supposed to make "X" hatches and plant starts), coupled with the butt-ugly black pipe sticking out, made the Grow Box a KO winner, especially when calculated in the GB came with the first year's supply of fertilizer. I have since discovered that their plastic covers will break down during the second year, so will be replacing all covers with some 4-mil plastic that I picked up in the Walmart hardware department, and using my own fertilizer, ala EB's original instructions, to make a "hybrid" growing box. Heat? Dry? Not a problem--the GB has a 4 1/2 gallon reservoir, and even on very hot days, if I water in the a.m. and check back in the p.m., they're never dry (and must NEVER be allowed to go dry). Weeds are not a problem, either; the bonus (that I didn't realize would be a bonus) is that we have terrible bindweed in our yard (okay, so that's not the bonus--wait for it!), and I didn't end up planting my garden into the ground right where the bindweed seems to be the worst. I never thought I would swear by container gardening, but I have grown carrots (in the same box with the tomatoes--who needs a separate stinking box!?!), peppers, radishes, eggplant, tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, cantelope, and flowers in my boxes. HUGE BONUS for container gardening: when we get our first hard freeze, I can take those suckers in the garage, and we'll have fresh tomatoes from our own garden well into January. They may not be as flavorful as those sun-warmed and -ripened that we miss from last August, but they're better than those pink mushy things loosely marketed as "tomatoes" at the local grocer, and not just cuz they're free! Good luck with your garden, and let us know what you end up doing!!!

I just assumed they are all hardy and didn't even take that into consideration, to be honest with you. I received 17 varieties - after they arrived I potted them up in the greenhouse cause the rock garden wasn't yet ready, and I had somewhere around 40 pots from those 17 varieties - Cavendish is quite generous! I like them all, really, but I've noticed Damask is quite nice with a dark red center and greener outer, Plastic is interesting - green but very shiny and rounded edges, Legolas and Plumb Rose held the purple colour all summer, Raspberry Ice is gorgeous. The rest of my order included Red Ace, Aross, Packardian, Pacific Sonata, Festival, Fuego, Director Jacobs, Lynn's Choice, Blue Boy, Lilac Time, Butterbur, and Magnificum. As I said, I like them all. And I want to order more! But i need to build another rock garden, I guess, or maybe a Semp garden - just semps and rocks. Hmm...

Thanks Mnwsgal. I will do that too. The suggestion is also effective to uproot an overgrown greek oregano. Love the plant and it's lovely pink flowers but it's taking over as well. so I've decided to do the following : First to make space for the miscanthus in the backyard..So kill off a hydrangea annabelle which got hidden by the taller joe pye weed. Reduce the pye weed to a smaller size. Remove the bugloss and see if it can be relocated to another part of the yard. Kill off the Rudbeckia goldsturm (I've another clump located in the front yard. What do you think of the mix of a miscanthus and the Joe Pye weed? I also have a Filipendula but it's white and I rather liked the pink one - so I'm planning to remove this. In the front yard, I plan to reduce further the salvia nemerosa and to remove a boneset and a miniature joe pye weed. Then remove the miscanthus, some phloxes and then remove all the foxgloves which were ill located. Also a fushia pink achillea. In the space besides the remaining salvias, I plan to put in large delphiniums and I would like to try to get light pinks or light blue ones to contrast with the deep blues of the salvias. I also have a really nice light pink achillea & astrantias to go with the salvias. I also think the delphiniums would come up around the same time the peonies are dying off & I have a really nice one in this area. I tried to put in yellows in the form of coreopsis but for some reason my correopsis is delayed in blooming while elsewhere in the neighborhood, these have been blooming heavily. So much to do.. but the ideas are forming now... I should post a photo of my front yard..However I find photobucket to be soooo slow in uploading. Any other good website I could try for free?

An effective smother blocks the light and physically prevents new growth from being able to form by the weight of it. If anything unwanted is able to creep to the edge and continue growing, the smother will fail. If unwanted growth underneath is connected to live material outside of the smother, it will fail. New growth from mature, woody material may be strong enough to come through corrugated cardboard, and the roots may take a long time to die from being smothered. The cardboard or paper itself weighs very little and isn't enough to block all of the light. Adding something over it to add weight and fully block the light is necessary for it to be effective, as well as remaining undisturbed (no holes poked in it) until one is sure everything under it is dead. Using some kind of organic matter for added weight and light-blocking, like mulch, leaves, compost, kitchen scraps, manure, whatever one has available, will help accomplish the smothering as well as add tilth and fertility to the soil, while also helping to improve drainage/moderate moisture level over time. An organic material like paper or cardboard will decompose and it's not necessary to remove it later, just dig in and start planting when you are sure nothing under is still alive. The least possible number of seeds that are already in the soil are able to sprout this way. Sheet metal, tough plastic, or something similar can also be used to smother, though it would need to be removed before using the spot, and adds nothing of value to the soil. The number of seeds that are already in the soil that would sprout after removing a non-organic smother is much higher. Your pics show a situation that's not ready for smothering because the woody debris would poke holes in newspaper (not strong/thick enough for your situation) or cardboard. A relatively smooth area, free of wood/rock debris hard enough to poke holes in cardboard/newspaper is the best candidate for successful smothering.