This past weekend, Ben and I took advantage of a gorgeous pre-spring day to dig beds for the vegetable garden I plan on having.
Planning out a garden is always a challenge, but since this is our first year in the house, there are a lot of logistics that go into getting the garden ready. I’ve had the soil tested for lead (it’s an old house and you don’t want to be growing things to eat in soil that contains heavy metals), decided the configuration of the beds in our tiny space, and am in the process of planning out where seedlings will grow. But despite all the thinking that goes into a garden, our time spent working outside felt less like work and more like an adventure. With every handful of dead leaves I cleared away from winter-browned irises in our front garden, tiny yellow crocuses peered up at me.
We dug up some wild onions that had wintered quite well. In most people’s yards, these are considered weeds. At the yellow house, on the other hand, I potted them to grow on the back deck. Don’t be surprised if you see some wild onion omelette recipes in the near future…
Digging our beds in an area that had been more or less uncultivated in the past offered some surprises. Ben unearthed a tiny chipped bottle, full of mud. I cleaned it out and promptly recommissioned it as a bud vase.
A big crew of friends came into town this weekend as well, and I found myself stashing little pockets of spring color around the house for them to discover.
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