Done! —ish

I might not be able to move tomorrow, but by golly I'm done -- ish.  

This morning, I finally put the last raised bed together and got it into place.  It went a bit easier this time since I had already done one and kinda knew what to do.  Then I got the old tape measure out and made sure everything was nice and symmetrical, and I think it looks really good the way I have it set up. 

  

That's all I'm going to do for this year, but when I get it all into place, the other half will look just like this half, only in mirror image.   

After a bit of a break I dug out all of the red clay and I'm telling ya, it went so much faster using the shovel.   Of course, if I had known how thick that clay layer was, I'd have done that the first time, too.  Nevertheless, they both are done now, and ready to be filled. 

By the way, those stakes are only there to mark where the corners should be, just in case I bump them while working around them.  I'll pull them out once I get the beds filled, which I started doing after another break -- I'm at the age where I need a lot of breaks.  

This is a trick I saw on several YouTube videos and gardening sites for cutting your costs when filling a lot of raised beds, to use compostable bulky stuff like twigs and limbs.  I filled the bottom of this one with storm debris, 

and the other with pine cones. 

Since I'm going to be re-planting these beds every year, I can do this, because this stuff will eventually compost down and, as it does so, I'll have to add more soil on top of it.  I'll have to top up my perennial beds, too, but not as much.  Fortunately, my state tax return has already hit my bank account: $13 whole dollars!  Woo Hoo!  I'm rich!

Still, that's enough to buy three bags of garden soil.  I just have to convince myself to go to the store and get it.  It won't happen today, that's for sure.  Before I do that, I'm going to put in as much as I can of the compost pile that I've been saving for years.  In fact, after yet another break, I already started doing that.  I got a couple of wheel barrows full transferred, then decided I ought to knock off for a while, because I'm not as young as I used to be and I'm already feeling it. 

I was going to mow the front yard, but I'm not sure I'm going to get around to that.  Eh, I might here a bit later when it's cooled off some.  In the meantime, I got my hummingbird feeders filled and put out. 

And I decided that my little zinnias needed to be thinned. 

Even though the plan was to put three seeds into each cell, apparently, I spilled some and a couple of them had six or seven seedlings in them.  A few moments with my scissors and they're down to two plants in each -- or one if only one seed had germinated. 

In a couple more weeks, I'll thin them down to the strongest seedling in each cell.  Two weeks after that, we should be past the danger of frost, so into their permanent home they'll go.  

And what would a blog post be if I didn't show you my bluebonnets.  

I can't tell you how tickled I am that they've done so well this year. You know what?  I think I'm going to go mow that front yard anyway.  Can't have weeds blocking the 'bonnets, can we?