The Garden, Year 2, Getting Serious

Well, well, well it's now cold wet and damp and its mid May. Doesn't really feel like spring except the 2 super hot days a few weeks ago, when I was deep in soil sifting mode and soaked it sweat. Tulips, crocus, daffodils have all come and gone, Azelas are in all their splendor along with the rhodendrums.It makes me so happy to be greeted with all this color when it reveals itself in our yard. Still in the process of taming this beast of a task.I did enlist the help of professional gardeners to clean out the giant back ivy bed (The bed of death). Years worth of decaying leaves twisted inside dense ivy vines, power tools were necessary! Last year I set up a makeshift garden with what was easy and fast because we had only moved in a few months earlier and the amount of projects was out of control.At that point I was extremely naive as to the horror that are little garden bunnies and spunky squirrels.They killed me.I yielded almost no usable produce.Enough said……. This year Jim and I have built The Fort Knox meets The Bellagio of vegetable gardens,(as long as no deer show up). We are taking raised beds surrounded by fencing.We used nylon mesh, chicken wire, hardware cloth,pressure treated lumber, reinforced corners,terra-cotta pavers, and the finest blend of local (sifted clean of debris)soil, combined with humus, manure, peat moss, mulch, organic composted soil, and love. Behold here is the project in photos: