A springtime ritual

Today I filled, amended, cleaned, half-planted, hooped, and covered the first of the raised garden beds for 2012. Radishes, arugula, asian spinach, and kale. The other half is for staggered plantings of the same. I found two wire worms, which quickly turned into wire-worm mush between my fingers (please don't tell PETA). Laura put this bed together for me last year, and she half-filled it with extra native dirt that I had lying around (the dirt ran out, hence the half-filling). So I bought several bags of organic topsoil and compost, and finished the job, along with some bonemeal and mineral goodness. Turn the entire thing with a garden fork, and then get into it with hands and elbows to even the mix, tossing out the stones... rake the whole thing flat, and then out with the 2" planting jig. Seed, water, put in the hoops and then clamp the plastic. That's a satisfying day!

Laura is now asking me to visit her and help her build some garden beds, which I think I should do. She worked hard to put together these beds for me, and to fill them as much as she could with the soil that I had on hand. So a road trip is in order.