Ah, for a good real spring after real winter!! Here, the rains have all but gone, one or two more light ones, and nothing till October. I am in a new garden this year, and inherited copious amounts of crocosmia and wild cyclamen. Will thin the bulbs in fall as it's prolly been 20 years since last done.......My calendula seedlings and sweet pea have all come up and been potted out. The annuals allysum, lobelia, pansies, impatiens are all still alive too, and some are actually looking happy. I'll have to move some to shadier places once the real summer bake sets in. The first year salvia indigo is looking pretty pleased, and the gaura shows promise. I am only growing native herbs this year, ones suited to this mountain. Rosemary, lavender, wormwood, lemon verbena, mint, wild thyme: the sage died and the basil is endangered by the snails. I emptied a HUGE bag of dirt that has been happily cooking all year down to some of the best stuff I've seen in years in Haifa. Good soil here on the mountain is a treasure. No place to put a veggie garden, if we stay in this house I may get to it, and am still searching for a decent place for a compost pile. Next project - the vacant lot attached to my house. Covered in weeds and vines, littered with years of glass and construction flotsam, when it dries in the summer sun, it becomes a haven for snakes,etc, and impossible to uproot in the rocky, hard soil. Now, in the Spring, is the time to pull them out roots and all, 5 feet at a time. Call me crazy, but I like weeding, even the big monsters, and I get great satisfaction from clearing a space. See where the mountain insists on being, see where there are pockets of soil, see where there are nests. I've even been known to sweep the mountainside, but that's another story........ Batya

The issue is the emerald ash borer. The ash wood is quarentined and must stay in my county which sverely limits the people who might have a need for it. I had a guy up at the house who makes his own lumber for furnitire and resale. He had zero interest in the ash - it is simply no good to him other than for firewood which he has has no need for. He told me to either let it rot, cut it up for firewood, or just dig a big hole and burn it. I appreciate the comment on the ash as not good for trim wood. I had a feeling this was the case. I have seen it used on flooring and wasn't thrilled with the look of the grain. The only options for me are that that the ash logs will either be turned into firewood - which I already have enough to last me for many years - or it is going to get chipped into mulch which I have a need for. The question I asked is what is the best way to do it. Cutting the wood into logs and splitting it may take a while but I could hire some people to do this. Once the wood is split, it can then be thrown into a chipper. In the end I get a nice pile of wood chips which I will use in my landscaping and at the same time remove the log pile which will more than likely rot on my land. To me this is a good use of trees that will otherwise just rot away. I understand that mulch is typically a byproduct of tree limbs etc. But dead wood is dead wood and a chipper knows no difference.

No, I'm not going to cover the soil. The area has a slight slope so I will terrace it. The sandy loam is fine but lacking any organic matter. I will screen out the rock and mix in compost and manure. I too have fought with clay in my first house and bless my luck with a more friable soil type but the many rocks in the glacial till is almost as much of a curse. As I sat with the sketchpad today, I also realized that I needed to expand the design a bit more to 12 x 22; allowing for a more diverse selection of vegetables. At the north end I will be able to have an area for a 4 bin composting set-up. I have used old ties for many year in smaller area for growing and never had any ill affects. I think sometimes we get overly concerned about contamination. Very good comments and input. I've toyed with intensive plantings; experimented as it were and found some veggies work better than others. This plan, I think will be lkely the greatest experiment of all.

Most crabgrass will simply set seed at a very low level if you whack off the top. That's why mowing does almost nothing to control it. In theory, regular application of a pre-emergent herbicide keeps it under control, but for those of us who try to minimize chemicals it's a lot more work. Best to work on improving your lawn (which can take years) with top-dressing, aeration if needed, and removing large rocks just below the surface that prevent deep roots if those are a factor. Then you can hand-pull or dig up large clumps of crab-grass and reseed the area in fall with desired grasses. We have found that most of our thin spots that are prone to crabgrass and weed infestation have biggish rocks about three inches down, preventing the good grass from taking hold. (Our house is a new construction). We have gradually been improving all our thin spots. Usually if you have lots of weeds and crabgrass there are no fixes that are not labor-intensive.