Potatoes, water barrel and new sidewalk

Temperatures are still a bit cool at night, so we have been using the lull to finish some more projects. School has moved home for another two weeks so Jess and I used lunch breaks to make a new stand and install the second rain barrel on the garage. The fence company sent a utility marker around, so I'm hopeful we'll see a fence soon.

The front bed was warm enough to loosen the soil so we planted this week. Mostly carrots, but also some chard, radishes, and lettuce. Jess also put in some onions and potatoes and strawberries down the south side. I think we'll move the raspberries out the front when the fence is installed and put them up against it on the south side. This should make more room for veggies. Oh, and I put in some asparagus crowns around back.

The seed potatoes were pretty leggy under the stairs so they went in. Jess planted 70 plants all told. Which is a lot of digging. I use the time to start some heavier soil moving on the north side of the garage. This is necessary to fix the drainage and also as preparation to repairing the north fence.

We also put aside three beds for some later planting of more delicate veggies. I haven't worked out the square footage of the new gardens but I'd say we're around 1000 square feet.

It is so helpful to be able to just give Jess a list of tasks and say "pick three" and then she just goes and does them (strawberry planting in the picture below) with only the occasionally question ("You bought too many strawberries--what should I do with the extra?").

I use the extra time Sunday to clean out a messy bit beside the house and lay a new walkway that connects to the brick spillway along the south side. Pretty good for free handing it and reusing bricks and left over winter sand. Still need to go clean up the dirt here to make it look more presentable.

We also laid some stepping stones out towards the back alley today. This week we'll set those a bit better and also clean up the canoe with an eye to selling it. I also need to go up the ladder with some sheet metal screws and fiddle with the eaves.

Garlic and some backyard renos

Spring is here and the garlic is up (along with the chives and few early tulips). 

We've spent the past three weeks working on sorting out the back yard. I built a third garden box out of some scrap lumber and we levelled out the section that will be lawn and a fire area. This involved humping a lot of dirt (two dump truck full in the end). This weekend, we seeded it and Jess is watering. Some in ground garden beds are visible toward the fence.

I also put the bird house back up.

This pano shot shows the back yard as it was yesterday. Garden on the left. Lawn in front. Then more garden on the right. Work has been slowed by periodic snow. This as a lot of work with a wheel barrow! We also got peas and onions planted in the wooden boxes.

Today we did some lighter work. We created a stepped set of beds in front (just moving some rocks around) for herbs. You can see Jess working behind the wheel barrow.

These turned out well. I also used a fork to loosen the soil in the front beds. I did about 60% before I got too tired! Maybe tomorrow. I hope to get some easy seeds in this week. 

 I'd also like to get some asparagus crowns for a bed in the back. Now I'm going to go have a nap.