Over the past 18 months we have definitely made improvements. There is green grass now, a play area with bark for the kids, garden boxes (that don't have anything in them yet), a vegetable garden area has been sectioned off, etc. Even with these improvements the winter months wreaked havoc on the yard and TLC is now required.
Last week Jeff rented a roto-tiller thing to churn up the weeds and clay and try to make the ground somewhat more useable. He has also been weed whacking up a storm and replacing the bark as needed.
As spring weather has set in we decided it was time to plant our modest vegetable patch again. Last year we had some successes but that clay soil is really not great for vegetable growing. And the advice we received from a local farmer to "amend, amend, amend, the soil" just seemed like a total pain in the ass so we just lived with our poor showing of tomatoes and couple strawberries that bloomed.
This year we are hoping for a better crop so we changed the game plan and went for container gardening instead. I read that you can grow a lot of vegetables and fruits in containers so we are giving that a shot. The problem is that really good containers are really expensive - like crazy expensive! Not in the mood to spend a lot of money on pots, we hit up garage sales and Craigslist and got some major scores. We have spent about $50 so far and have gotten a huge wine barrel container with a good sized orange tree in it, and seven large ceramic pots.
Last night we enlisted our little helpers to plant our starter seedlings in the new pots and what resulted was a muddy, soaking wet, mess! So basically they had a blast and Jeff and I did all the work. :o)
