I really prefer English cottage style gardens with tons of flowers and tangles of color vs. structure and boring. And I love regency novels where proper ladies spend their mornings cutting flowers and arranging them (or having a maid or house keeper, etc. take care of that part). I also like to cook, so having a fully stocked herb garden close by sounded like a good plan. So I envisioned a lush little area with stone paths lining a mix of herbs and edible flowers, throw in some strawberry and blueberries to stop and nibble on framing my little back patio. I’d spend summer evenings surrounded by the smell of sun-warmed herbs and flowers, bees buzzing, while I grilled or relaxed with a beverage after a long day of work. Heavenly!

What I don’t love is mowing the lawn. And my new lawn is HUGE! So kill two birds with one stone by making a new bed around the back patio that will be primarily for herbs and maybe some cutting flowers — but I want everything to be edible.

But First I have to get rid of the grass. After digging out the new beds in the front yard, I knew that trying to remove that quantity of sod by hand would officially kill me. So I welcomed the Black Death.

I laid black plastic to kill the grass and put all of my pots I moved from the other house and random bricks for the crumbled retaining wall to keep it in place.

Now hurry up and wait — which is challenging since some of the plants in the pots are going to want permeant homes soon.