Garden, garden, garden!

Now that the snow SEEMS to be over for the time being, and it has warmed up significantly, I have been working like crazy to get the main garden planted and going.

A few weeks back, I planted our early garden in a small bed behind the garage. There were a number of Columbine plants there starting to poke through the ground, and I moved all that I saw to the front of the bed, in a row. I say all that I saw- because I obviously missed a number of them- they are spread out all over! I will move them in the fall.

Anyway, in that bed along with the columbines, I planted snow peas, shelling peas, lettuce, and spinach. Everything is up and starting to grow!

When Chloe and I were digging weeds and starting to prep the main veggie garden, we transplanted the chives and thyme that had sprung up into a bed beside the patio. I want all the herbs together and for the perennial ones to have a safe place (from the tiller and pitchfork) to pop up next year. I still have a number of herbs to plant this week.

I have some fruit plants and bushes along the back fence, but that "garden" is very underdeveloped. I will work on that this summer when we are back from holidays.

And the veggie garden. Ahh, what a space. Approximately 400 square feet of mostly clay soil. I have soil envy! My next door neighbor has this soft, beautiful soil, the kind you could lay in and just inhale... But they have lived here for many years and so have quite a head start on me! lol

Yesterday I added my composted manure and fertilizer and, using the pitchfork only, turned the soil six inches deep. I got a ton of blisters on my hands (even though I was wearing work gloves!), I have sore muscles everywhere today, and I was absolutely exhausted as it was a huge job. But I got a huge satisfaction from a job well done. Next year though, I am either going to talk my husband into buying me a little rototiller, or I will hire someone to do it.

Today we laid out the soaker hoses and are watering the space and I am putting the final touches on where I think everything should be planted. I try to write it all down so I know what is where... and I am still learning to recognize plants from weeds- good rule of thumb is to wait a bit if you are not sure... lol

So that is where we are at right now. I will post updated photos as soon as there is something cool to see!