Reclamation - Carrots and Fennel

Last Saturday February 5, rather than laying newspaper on the grassy bed beside the driveway and letting the grass die over the course of a few weeks like I was probably supposed to, I took to ripping the grass out with my hands.  I tried not to disrupt the soil too much in the process, but I'm sure I did.  Below is the outcome.  I mixed in a little organic fertilizer, and planted a row of Canver Carrots in the middle.

There was a flowering plant in this little bed beside the back stoop.  My mom said it was 4 O'clock, but I'm not sure.  It has hollow stems that pop off when you try to dig them up.  Although the fennel seed pack said to start indoors, I decided to just go for it, since it's pretty warm here during the day already.  We are going to have to put extra effort into not running over this bed trying to cram our car into the parking space by the house.  Also yard legend has it that others have tried and failed to get rid of the mysterious flowering plant.  So we'll see if the fennel grow some and own this bed.