Clearing out the Backyard

Today, I spent some time in the backyard clearing out the jungle.  There is still a whole mess of plants around the yard, and I guess I'm tackling it one area at a time.  This time, it's the place right next to the kitchen door.  It took me about two hours to rip out all the weeks, roots, plants, etc.  Here's a picture of what it looks like now:

All those bricks in the bottom of the picture had a thick mat of roots growing all over and in between them.  It was a pain in the butt to cut it all cut up and pulled out.  I have a feeling this isn't quite over yet...

Spearmint Plant!

Today was a pretty exciting day! 

We went to Sloat Garden Center today to check out some plants.  My main goal was to get some sort of mint plants to propogate along the edges of the yard to build up a defense from mice and rodents (supposedly they hate the smell).  Sandra wanted to get some herbs and indoor plants.  We ending up getting a spearmint plant, a lavender, a cilantro, a rosemary, and a sweet basil.  I think except for the mint and lavender, these will be grown indoors.  We'd need to get a better planter if we were going to put the rest of the herbs outside. 

And I planted my spearmint plant in the yard!  It's the first plant from the group that we bought at Sloat Garden Center that we're planting in the yard.  I hope it takes.  It's an invasive species, and I hear they grow and spread really quickly.  Here's the little guy now:

It's not your imagination, if you noticed...  The top of the plant is cut!  I took a clipping to put in water to root.  This little guy's going to have clones all around the yard!