Garden Installation

It's taking just about all the energy I have left to blog tonight.  I have fully installed three out of the four backyard raised beds.  The last one is waiting until after our new fence is built next week. Earlier this week I finished digging up the grass around the beds and finished the brick edging.  Yesterday I emptied the compost turner, using the nearly composted food scraps as the bottom layer of the new beds.  Our compost turner works well, but it's definitely not easy to empty.  I always try to pitchfork the compost out of it, but end up throwing on gloves and finishing the job with my hands--as in cooking, the hands are always the best tool.  This afternoon the topsoil was delivered.  Basically the guy just backed the truck into the apron of our garage and dumped it out.  Vera thought that was pretty cool.  I worked like heck to move three cubic yards of dirt in time for Ben to get home and pull his car into the garage.  At first glance it didn't look like much dirt, but after moving the initial three or four loads I realized I had a long way to go.  I couldn't have done it without my trusty green wheelbarrow that I bought at the ReStore a few years ago--best $4 I've ever spent. Vera napped through the first hour--this is turning into a sequel to "While You Were Sleeping."  I'm lucky that she's timed her naps so well to allow me to get so much done.  While I was shoveling all the topsoil I realized that this was karma for not having to shovel snow for the past two seasons.  But I've realized that Ben more or less does the yardwork in the winter and I do it in the summer.  I was completely wiped out after all of this, but I'm planning to do it again in a couple of weeks when we install two more beds in the front yard.  I relate it to childbirth.  After a while you forget the pain and decide you want to do it again.    This weekend I'll be planting one of the new beds with carrots and onions, and transplanting herbs to another.  The backyard is really taking shape.  I'm excited to plant some annuals in pots next weekend and get the shade sail hung.  Then it will be time to relax and enjoy it.  I've already got my stack of summer reading in mind.