The big vege garden is finally planted!

[Bayard]

I've been busting my butt the past month getting it weeded and cleaned up, (boy I wish I'd done that last fall!) Repaired or replaced the landscape fabric I use on the paths. Finally figured out that 6 inch pins are the only way to go. Carried tons of compost over from the goat pens to work into rows and raised beds. Been saving old hay to use as mulch.

Now, most everything from seed is starting to peep up: A new variety of sweet red pepper I'm trying this year, broccoli, brussel sprouts, 2 kinds of lettuce, spinach, green peas, black eyed peas, green beans, okra, and cantaloupe. Some I decided to just get nursery plants this year: more strawberries, 2 rows of tomatoes, cukes, some peppers, red cabbage, cauliflower. The perennial blueberries, strawberries, and grapes look good. I planted a raspberry plant several years ago, and it hasn't done anything but stick me. I'm thinking of digging it out, and replacing with a thornless blackberry I got the other day.

So, this evening I started working on the watermelon patch, mostly cleanup. I need to have somebody come in with a major weedeater and clear out a little hillside of wild roses and blackberries. Its a mess. I want to make that my pumpkin patch this year. The dwarf fruit trees we planted last year look good. They survived the geese trying to root around them.

I need to just completely encase my body in neoprene. I wear elbow braces, a back brace I put on lower to support a bad hip. I need to find a shoulder brace (old broken scapula and ribs.) Old injuries or bursitis I've already had injected too many times. I took 2 falls on the ice in January that I'm still waiting on hip MRI results on since I finally broke down and went. Getting old sucks. I choose not to participate.

I haven't gotten to the big flower garden yet. Its a real disaster, and some things are already blooming--pink columbine, peonies, allium. Busy, busy, busy. I'll take pics when everything is big enough to see.

So, how's everybody else's garden growing?