What was it..two..three weeks ago that I was whining about the thick layer of snow that still covered our yard? Well it's amazing what a couple of 60 degree days can do. There are still patches of snow, in the shadows and under bushes, but the soil thawed enough that we were able to borrow a roto-tiller this weekend and dig in our garden. It took us a while to agree on the bed placement (north-south or east-west, leave room for the possibly-some day we will want a drive way here or use all the land we've got and change things later if we need to,
and there there was the "do straight lines really matter? question) but eventually we had two 3 foot by 24 foot beds and two 3 foot by 8 foot beds. It's a lot of garden space but we did say we wanted a huge garden.We also planted more seeds in some interesting looking, recycled toilet roll planters that I made.And then yesterday we had a huge pile of mulch and a slightly smaller pile of compost delivered for spreading on the flower and vegetable beds, so today I've had a hard time coming inside to do much of anything while the sun beckons and the soil waits to be moved.
When Evelyn was a baby I spent pretty much the whole of her first summer and fall outside trying to create a garden in the backyard of our house in Portland. When we bought the house there was a glorious apple tree in the yard and not much else. While Briton dug in what was supposed to be a gravel filled fire pit but quickly became a gravel filled digging pit and Evelyn lay peacefully on a blanket in the shade with her toys and the leaves above to distract her, I double dug beds, put down mulch, fought back the encroaching blackberry vines and generally had a wonderful time. In fact, it's one of my favorite summers of all time. So getting out with the dirt today was just what I needed after this long long winter.It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and all week, and into the weekend, so I'll probably get grumbly again. But for now.... ahhh blessed sunshine.