Project Day, yet again

Saturday was once again a Project Day, and this time it was at my house. This was great timing, in that I wanted to put in garden beds before too much of spring was gone. This was also terrible timing, in that I had just worked twelve days straight and the weather didn't cooperate.

My plucky friends and I were undaunted, of course. I had counted on my (strong) friend N helping me to rent the tiller and to lift it into my car for transport home, and I was worried when he got sick and couldn't come. Instead, a female friend helped me pick up and load the 125-pound tiller. I had worried needlessly; these two friends are mothers who pick up heavy children every day and they are bigger and stronger than me. 

What you can't see in the pictures below is that it was in the low 50's F (low teens C) and raining. So please dump a cup of cold water over your head, carry a 40 pound bucket 100 feet and dump it, and repeat. Then you'll get a better feel for our day.

 It was hard work holding the tiller back so that it could churn up the clay soil and grass.

Four adults and three small children hauled topsoil and compost* from the front yard to the new garden beds in the back yard.

The new beds are beautiful. The very next day, I ordered asparagus, a fig tree, and raspberry bushes to plant in the new gardens. This was a perfect way to celebrate the new gardens, as these are all plants I couldn't have in my old place (since they take so long to establish) and I could order the plants without moving from my bed, where I spent most of Sunday recovering.

*Many thanks to my in-laws, who bought me 5 cubic yards of dirt as a housewarming gift.