A little bit of progress

The boys and I spent part of the morning outside - what a gorgeous day!  I managed to clear weeds from a good portion of the garden in between keeping the baby out of the son and watching my toddler as he moseyed back and forth between his sandbox and my garden, often bringing dump trucks loaded with sand. He also kept demanding that I find more worms, as if that was going to be a problem!

Nearly half of the raised bed is now weed-free and prepped for planting. 

A view from the southeast side of the garden.

Prepping the garden

2013 will be my third growing season. I don't know all that much about gardening, but there are two things I'm pretty sure are true:

weeds = bad
earthworms = good

I keep attempting to prep the soil for this year's planting, but doing so with a two-year old and four-month old yields minimal productivity. I snuck out to my garden during the boys' synchronized naps this afternoon - thought I was pretty slick bringing the baby monitor to listen in on the little guy. But after 10-15 minutes of pulling weeds and turning soil, the monitor crapped out. It's a good thing I went back inside, because baby guy was crying (he rarely cries, and I would never leave him alone to cry - we were both pretty sad over the whole thing).

Weeds removed. Soil broken up and turned. Feels awesome!

Tool of choice. No idea what it's called, but it's awesome!

I started at the top edge of the bed and pulled the tool toward me, ripping up weeds and organic matter. I sifted through the softened soil to pull up weeds, but left behind anything that appeared to be decaying or dried out (that stuff counts as fodder for compost, right?), and then continued on to the next section.

A lot of work, a little pile of weeds.

The garden is four railroad ties long, or thirty-two feet. I think I got through about 5 feet of it. Planning to plant chili peppers, bell peppers, chard, kale, spinach, and carrots.

The husband trenched water AND electricity (though it didn't seem to be working today, hence the crying baby incident) out to my garden (SWEET!), and he extended the fence enough to accommodate three eight-by-eight raised beds (to be integrated next year).  As for this growing season, I will use the open space to plant melons, cukes, and potted tomatoes. I'll plant beans and luffas along the perimeter, allowing them to climb the fence.