'Tis the Season

It's spring, so that means we're out in the yard every chance we get. The really awful bugs haven't come out yet and it's lovely and not too humid. So of course we garden.

This year, we have the addition of the vegetable garden to get ready (mostly by Grandma but with a little physical labor from D). The walls went up last fall and so Grandma got to work rototilling the ground and getting it ready for planting.

To our surprise, she also put down a landscaping cloth, to help keep the weeds out. Nothing I've ever used on a vegetable garden before, but she's the expert. We'll see how it turns out.

At the same time that she was getting the plot cleared, we got 3 cubic yards of compost, both to fill the garden and to help with other areas around the yard. After D brought 13 wheelbarrow's worth of compost to the garden (there's that physical labor part I mentioned), it was ready for planting all the seedlings that had been growing in our picture window for the last month.

We have two little additions to our garden to keep watch over it and make sure that the animals keep out. They'll probably be pretty dingy and sun-bleached by the end of the season but for now they're looking chipper and ready for action.

With the vegetables planted, it's time to move onto other things. The weeds have truly taken over our flower beds. To the point where we aren't even sure where to begin on removing them. We're starting with the front flower beds, since those are the ones most visible to the neighbors (and also the less weedy, so they seem more manageable). Remember when liriope was our only problem? Seems like there's a new intrusive weed every year.

At the rate we're going, I'd say I have maybe 3 more good weekends of outdoor time before retreating indoors. And we probably only have about 6 month's worth of gardening that needs doing. Hm....that doesn't quite work out, does it?