The Garden of Weedin' - Phase I

I apologize for my long absence from the blogging world. We've been a little busy around here (as you'll see from the next few posts).

This year, the garden is our number one priority. We had too much going on last year to work on it, so we had to settle for a few crops in the existing rustic beds and walk over and around the tangle of weeds on the floor. Here's what the garden looked like when we moved in a year and a half ago:

There was no gate, just wire fencing about five feet high. The deer could easily jump over that (if they wanted to). A dirt floor and a few rustic, homemade beds were inside.











We grew some yummy potatoes, beets, onions and herbs last year. We also continued to contribute to the existing compost pile, which supplied us with a surprise crop of various kinds of squash.

But as I wrestled with the rolled up fencing every time I entered the garden, I yearned for a real gate. So Bruce made my garden gate dreams come true.

First, he added about three feet of fencing all around the top of the garden so the deer couldn't get in. Then he built the gate frame...











then he added the posts from our property (see previous post "Our Garden Gate - Part I" on 8/2/13 for details).

As you can see, that was about all we could do last year before winter set in. A few weeks ago, after the last of the snow and ice melted, we started weeding the garden "floor"...

Ahh, my favorite pose.










Meet my new best friend - the Truper!

Here I am with the Truper, moving one of the compost piles from inside the garden to the new compost location outside the back of the garden. You can see the new pile at the upper left. Bruce is going to install a gate at the back of the garden for easy access, and we'll build a nice little three-sided enclosure for the pile so we don't have to stare at (or smell) it while we're gardening.

Nice outfit!













Here's the new compost pile, composed of last year's delicious concoction and this year's still-in-the-works earthly stew.

Cody accompanied me on every trip between the garden and the compost pile. My protector!













The New American Gothic:

Manually removing all of those weeds was back-breaking work, but very satisfying.

Cody hung out with me the whole time. He's slowing down, but he still loves being outside and cleans his food bowl every night, so he's not ready to leave us quite yet.











Finally done! All but one bed was removed. The remaining bed's sides were raised by about a foot to make it taller (old bodies like less bending). Both compost piles were moved out. All weeds were viciously hacked and whacked and moved to the burn pile.

Take a break, Bruce.












Ready for Phase II!

Phase II involves installing the hardware cloth and garden fabric, then filling in the floor and entryway with 2" rainbow gravel (it's going to be so pretty). In Phase III, Bruce will build six 10' x 5' beds and we'll have a huge pile of soil delivered to fill them. Phase IV will be...planting! Stay tuned...