May has arrived

It is May and the weather has turned much cooler.  We are paying for the extra nice weather we had in early spring.  In addition to the two, new sixteen foot beds, Terry also built two eight foot beds. It was going to be a project for next year but he was on a roll so he kept on coating and painting boards,  and using tons of screws.

We sprayed the grass with vinegar, Epsom salts and Dawn to kill the grass without poisoning the soil. After we fill the beds with topsoil, we will mulch the area surrounding the beds.

 The sun room has been his workshop for the past two winters and now we can actually use the room for added living space.  As soon as the garden is planted, we can seal and paint the floor and begin the process of making the sun room into our mini, summer living / dining room.

The two new eight foot beds are filled and Terry is doing a little raking as a finishing touch.  I am the one who rakes the soil in the beds but I was taking the photo so he took over my job for this bed.  Now comes the time when we have to decide what to plant in each bed.

A photo of the whole garden.  The bed on the left in the foreground is a second asparagus bed.  We planted half last year and are not so patiently waiting for the first signs of life from the roots we planted this year.  The green plants in the mulch on the right side of the photo are not weeds.  They are errant strawberry plants that decided to grow outside the bed and we didn't have the heart to dig them out.  At least not until after they provide us with a berry or two.

A close-up of the snow peas that have begun to peep through the soil.  We will soon put in stakes and string for the plants to climb upon.  They are semi-bush type peas but without support get tangled and it makes it difficult to weed and harvest the peas.  Terry makes me put a nail in the end of the bed use a string to make my rows straight.  Guess he heard about how crooked my garden rows can be without benefit of a tape measure and string. Gee, so picky.

Another shot of  the garden.  On the right side, close to the shed, you can see what they call "greenhouse buckets".  They are the size of a five gallon bucket and have an opening on the top that has a movable cover.  These mini greenhouses are perfect for starting our broccoli. Rebecca and Terry gave us some of these buckets for Christmas two years ago and they are one of the best garden tools available.  We are ordering more for next year. Our garden is a hobby that supplies us with exercise, fresh air and food. What more can we ask?  It isn't huge, at just under 700 square feet, but enough to keep us busy.