Winter Prep

I took a year off from gardening last year. It was a crazy winter that would not end and I missed that magic spot to plant things. We had a planned family trip and after several evenings of trying to play catch up I threw in the hoe and said we would just not bother.

The kids were very very quiet. Just in case I was serious and all their dreams had come true.

They were so happy.

Naturally it was a mild and rainy summer and I probably would have had tomatoes through Halloween.

It was still a good learning experience for me in other ways. Friends had harvest to share and when they were tired of picking green beans, we picked enough to yield 27 quarts - our first ever use of the new pressure canner! Another friend dropped off over a hundred pounds of tomatoes. I'd never canned a tomato before but by the end, my daughters and I were pro's.

And if you do the math, I think that shrunk down to about 7 jars of sauce. :)

Back to gardening though. I decided to apply the raised bed system and so we got to preparing.

Here is what we did the very last week of November...

Nature is no gentleman. A year off meant our stupid garden was nothing but weeds.

And so the husband, who wants nothing to do with the garden but often finds himself involved anyway, took to the job of weeding. Because he loves me.

When we had our driveway done, we paid the extra dollars and had them till the land once again. So beautiful.

We went to the merry work of assembling boxes and digging holes to set them. Each box got 3 wheelbarrows of dirt cheerfully dug and moved from one side of the plot to the other.
The big ol ditch where we took the dirt will be filled with leaves and compost to hopefully be of use in a year or two or six... when I am ready to expand my planting. ;)

Box were put to bed with a layer of newspaper and a layer of leaves. The soda bottles were because of the terrible wind. Kid you not it started sleeting as we finished the project.

There you have it. Now we are the first week of March. Currently snowing and sleeting. Hard to imagine in a month or two it will be that season again. I am hoping that we have put forth the effort in order to reduce our frustration. Each year we learn more and each year we hopefully do better.