The Garden Is Taking Shape

We worked soooooooo hard over the weekend on the garden! My husband sprinkled extra compost over the dirt and rototilled it AGAIN. The soil is so much better than it was before. He also rototilled the back of the yard, where our future pumpkin patch will be.

We have had a surprising and beautiful little patch of freesia pop up in the corner of the backyard. It is gorgeous, and the smell is incredible. As we've only lived in the house for about six months, we had no idea what it was when it first started coming up.

I then went over to a friend's house and cut down several pieces of bamboo, which we will use for our "string bean teepee" We will string five of them together and set them up so that a child (or two, or three) can actually sit inside. I have some awesome tri-colored beans to try on the poles--green, purple, and yellow!

I've scrubbed the stepping stones, which are now ready for painting. I actually painted them tonight, but don't have photos yet, as the drying stones are scattered all over the house since they cannot be exposed to moisture for 72 hours (and of course, it's raining outside). I painted the words sprout, grow, bloom, thrive, and flourish on each one.

I spent over 6 hours weeding the raspberry bushes. My forearms look like I was in a fight with a vicious cat. I then covered the ground around them in woodchips, which were donated by a friend.

Today Sven and I went out and started laying out the cement borders. Things are really taking shape! We only had enough time before the rain came to dig and place two of the five beds, so we still have more work to do. But it just feels great looking at it and seeing it come together.

And, finally, I've planted morning glory seeds along the majority of the fence perimeter. I read that in two months they can grow as much as ten feet! I'm hoping to have the wooden fence completely covered in beautiful vines and purple flowers. Now I just need to put up a system for the vines to grow up--I'm thinking small nails and fishing wire, so it won't be visible. Next weekend we'll finish placing the borders and get the teepee together, and then we can start planting the beds!