First thing I learned when I got here was how important the soil is to the garden. Take your time and prepare the soil correctly you'll be rewarded by the garden & lawn that you get!!!! Wish I had known that.

For your flower beds, do the raised beds they look great and the fertilizing raising process kills the weeds for you and it is ready to plant in 6 weeks. Which if you use starter plants this year rather than seeds still gives you plenty of blooms up until frost. There is a vinegar, salt, dishsoap weedkiller recipe that works but I've been cautioned not to use it for widespread weeds because the salt could cause the soil not to support any plants at all. Depending on the amount of weeds in your lawn maybe one of those weed and seed products? Well I'll leave that for someone who knows more than I do. The site is closing at 8:00 p.m. tonight but it will be comming back better than ever so be patient and don't be too anxious to plant. Amending soil after something is planted is a lot harder than doing it before. Even if it means you have to wait.

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HI Onion,
I am NY transplant myself. I moved away about 6 years ago, out to Cheeseland.

It is not too late to start your lawn, it is actually too early in my mind. Starting a lawn and going into the summer can be very difficult, as you have a lot of things going against you, the heat and lack of natural water being the 2 biggest. Also not to forget the crab grass which you will get if you plant your lawn now. I would rather wait until later in the summer or early fall, when the temps moderate and rain will be more likely. The delicate new little grass plants will stand a much better chance at surviving!

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Mike Maier
aka
The Plant Doc

I don't know about you guys nut here in Idaho Falls, (you're probably wondering where that is) we do things the old-fashioned way. We weed and feed and then our parents bribe us to go pick weeds and then they say, hey you could use a tan go pick weeds. It's not fun also it's time consuming,but it works.
~Celena