Tending the Garden!

Jim and I have been dreaming of having a proper garden for years.  Oh there have been potted plants here or there, but never have we had the space or stability to invest ourselves into a 'proper' garden.  Jim is now jokingly calling the back yard our farm... and yes, we are definitely dreaming of urban farming.  We now have three rhubarb plants, three blueberry bushes, four grape vines, half a dozen brambles (a mix of blackberry and rasperry), a plum and peach tree (Jonah's requested birthday gift from my parents last year - love it!) and now... drumroll please... we have a five foot circle waiting to be made into a herb spiral, mounds waiting for squash and melons and seven raised beds.

So the past two weeks have been full of preparing a space (thanks to my Dad who arrived with a chainsaw ready to tackle the horrid bushes on the sunny side of the yard), testing soils, sorting and starting seeds, building beds, and a dump truck load of dirt that was delivered into our alley.  (Oh, what a lovely memory I will keep of being eight months pregnant and trying to shovel dirt madly into the wheelbarrow so we could make a reasonable path for cars to get by.)

We are a bit sore and tired, but mostly, are just so very pleased to see all of this coming together.  There is still lots of work to do, but the beds are ready for planting later this week and the weather has turned warm and balmy warming the soil for our precious seeds.  We may be a bit crazy (especially considering that baby will probably join us in about a month).  But, I'm comforting myself that we could be crazier, I did decide to put the chickens off till next spring.