We’ve had such a beautiful run of spring days that I’m not getting much quilting/sewing done, because, as usual, yard work is so much fun in the spring. Hard, but fun. Considering there was a freeze last night, today has turned out gorgeous. 58° never felt so warm.

We pondered, last summer, about putting in more space to grown vegetables. Planters are great, but they weren’t deep enough for some things or sturdy enough for others.

Summer 2011

We even considered yanking out some of our 10-year-old landscape. It has gotten overgrown, grass was creeping in, cedar tree debris was deep…. Obviously, or maybe not, this is before this year’s spring cleanup. We don’t live with this mess throughout the summer.

Before you ask, that’s our planter irrigation lines and drops stuck into the deck, to get them out-of-the-way. And yes, we are prepping for painting, having had many of the cedar siding boards replaced on this south-facing side.

We decided to go for it. Nothing could look worse than those creepy/creeping evergreens with dead spots on them. The two Princess Spireas, to the far left, have seen better days, too. What a difference a day makes when you have a strong, willing man with a shovel along with 6 whiskey barrel planters, 24 cubic feet of organic,  soil less growing medium and 2 yards of fresh stone, well one yard of stone here, another yard around the rest of the yard.

Did you know it’s nearly impossible to find, online, how much soil one of these barrels will hold? Just so you know ours took about 4 cubic feet each : )

We will still be able to use our deck planters for lettuces and smaller plants that we might want to move around and the irrigation lines should still have enough oomph for it all. Can’t wait!

We’ve now completed cleaning up the debris all around the house and refreshed the stone. Time to bring out the deck furniture and flower planters.

Time to get the trees trimmed and flowers planted out front

and to get our tiny pond cleaned out and some fishies put in.

And, of course, getting our herbs and veggie plants and seeds put in….

For now, I think I’ll just take a peek and see what my fiends are up to!