Garden Work Is Happening

The sun is shining. The birds are singing. 

But the soil is still quite cold. And I want to plant tomatoes. And peppers. And basil. And other stuff.

So, I headed out to the raised beds to get them ready. Sissy helped (and wanted to make sure everyone knew it). We tilled the compost into them and raked them smooth. We had to be careful not to get the sugar snap peas that are just emerging.

Then it was time to lay out the soaker hoses in their snakey patterns. I use a spool of wire and cut it to make long stakes. Once it was all laid out we connected the garden hose and checked to make sure all was working well. To tell the truth, I told the kids if it didn't work, I wasn't going to re-do it. My back was done by that point. And I wasn't finished yet. Lucky me, the hoses all worked.

Finally, we covered the beds with weed barrier. I'm hoping the black color will help warm the soil enough that I can plant next week. It allows water, sunlight, and air to penetrate. I again used the wire to make staples to hold down the barrier. I'm going to place a few bricks on top because we get some pretty strong winds out here.

I mowed before taking this picture, so the weed barrier is a bit messy. The lawn was so thick and long! Look at those windrows. The kids like to use the lawn sweep to clean it up, though. 

I've never tried this before, but our spring has been so unseasonably cold that I wanted to do something to help get things back on track. I'll let you know how it goes.