It’s nice to have help!

Spring has sprung with a weedy vengeance around here. The garden bed on the north side of the house is typical of how they all look (or looked) before yard work began.

But yesterday, with the kids help, my main garden area is almost ready for planting.

We have weeded all the tires in the background. I think I’m going to experiment with some corn there this year. Then yesterday we did the fenced in area. It got weeded, then tilled, then the four new metal raised beds were put together and set in place. They still need filled. The remaining weeds by the gate will be removed once the gate is replaced with a larger one that the wheelbarrow will fit through.

That was a lot of work, even with four of us working on it! And the chickens are happy as they had about six wheelbarrow loads of fresh pulled weeds to peck through. This morning they’re still pecking through them.

We still have the greenstalk planters to refresh and relocate. They didn’t get enough sun or rain where they were last year. Hopefully this year’s location will work better!

And I have to decide where the strawberry plants I ordered are going. They’ll be here next week. The strawberry plants I had in the Greenstalk didn’t survive the cold temps we got this winter. My theory is they were too tall without enough protection from the cold snaps. We had a really cold winter for us! I’m thinking this because the ones in the lower metal raised beds have survived and are thriving. And they were only 10’ away from the Greenstalk planters. My plan going forward is to use the Greenstalk for annuals only.

So today I tackle the front four metal beds outside the fence and hopefully get my potatoes in the ground. And tonight I work on customer orders. It’s nice to have the freedom to work outside all day during daylight and then turn on the lights to work in in the studio in the evenings. A luxury not all have and for which I am grateful. Even if, like last night, it was 8pm before I got to the studio, it’s still good to run my own timetable and be able to accept help when there’s help around!