As if we need more problems from the neighbors, our northern neighbor came over this morning after our oldest went to school and told me that he doesn't want our son anywhere near his garden. I asked him what brought that on and he says " you are all getting to close to our garden " I started laughing. His garden and property are right up against ours with no fence in between, and as in the post below, I explain the property line problem. I told him that we would be taking care of that come this spring. He gets a smile on his face and says "your moving?" Nope, I say, the landlord is allowing a fence in our garden so that we won't be going past "your" line. He stormed off, so glad the landlord is on our side. Wonder what hubby will say about this. Sarah

I spent 3 hours outside today with my son which was great, unfortunately we only got a 4 by 4 area ready to plant. Let me explain. My hubby tilled the soil one way then the other working it realllllly well, but. And I mean a big BUT. The area used to be the dumping ground for all the previous renters. And is sooooooo full of rocks, glass, wire, nails, weeds galore. I have a big help in my son and a sifter my late grandfather built for my grandma. She let me borrow it for this reason. So, son and I start out with all the tools at the ready, the plants ready to go, hose with long watering wand all ready to go. Until we started digging. Even though the soil was worked the day before we could only get the trowels in a few inches. So we break out the big shovel and start digging out the area, laying the dug out soil on the side of the garden that won't be worked on for a while yet. After about 5 minutes of this I have to sit down, I don't have a choice. So my son, 11 and 3/4 years old takes the shovel from me and never having dug more than a plant hole in front of the house, starts to dig out for me. Hubby was in the house with the twins because our youngest son wants to run to the neighbors and climb on the Bobcat, and I am the only one that knows how I want this done. So while son gets the 4 by 4 area dug out, which takes about an hour because it is so hard and I wanted it dug out deep for the roots, I get a blanket and sit on the dirt area that we won't be working on, going to make that area a 3 bin composter. I have mentioned before that I have combined my love of gardening with my new found love of Freecycle. Well, from the freecycle groups around here I have picked up about 30 feet of edging. I got the edging out and decided that since this bed was going to be a permanent place, I wanted to make sure that NO one dug it up until we move to our own house in a few years (crossing fingers). I lay the edging in the dug out area one direction curved it in to the corner and went down to the edge that was dug out. Had son get the sifter and I started filling the inside of the edging with fresh sifted soil. I back filled with the bigger soil on the outside of the edging so it was solidly in the ground. I have now started a rock pile that will grace the back edge of my garden as it is up against the alley that my neighbor seems to think is his even though it is our area. The rocks will keep his nice little mower away from my plants. My garden area is the entire width of our property. On the west side. The neighbor to my west I have NO problem with, it is my neighbor to the North that we have the problem with. He wants to buy this place from the landlord so he can bulldoze it and have a full half block. Anyway. We finally, after 3 hours of hard sifting, have a 4 x 4 bed ready to plant and I am just to tired to do it. So when hubby gets home tomorrow, if not to late, he and I will get the plants in and watered so that at least I can get them over wintered safely. I am designing the bed tonight so that I won't have to move anything except to divide them later. What is going in this bed is a TON of stuff. Egyptian Onions, 2 types of Garlic, Sedum, Iris, Hosta, Clematis, which I will be moving in the spring to the northern edge of the west side, a plant that I am not sure of the name but the leaves are low to the ground and the flower spikes are tall and pink, Surprise Lily's all around the South and East side of the bed, Daylily's, orange in color that above mentioned neighbor tried to kill this year again, some rooted hedge starts that will get moved in the spring to a permanent area on the south side of the garage (it is bare but not conductive to veggies), some mint and oregano roots, a clump of Zebra Grass, and some grape cuttings that I got from my daddy's vines, I will move them to another bed next spring once I get it figured out where the best place is for them. After all this today, I finally found out that my garden area is 30 foot wide. The property width is 66 foot but, another big but, my neighbor to the north says that the property line is about 3 foot past our house. meaning our house is built on his property. Thing is, I know how to read a tape measure. His marker, which is in the front yard, is a nice little white marker. From the northern edge of that marker 66 straight feet south lands us across the alley and smack in my neighbor to the south's yard a good 2 feet. Another reason our landlord does not want us to move. Seems every year that someone isn't in here the marker moves over to the south. Anyway, the garden bed length is not 66 feet but I am making it 40 feet long, by 24 foot wide with a 2 foot wide path between the back bed and the main garden. Who knows, I may make many "beds" with paths between that way I can work all the rocks out and the glass one bed at a time. Off to read the boards. Will post more later. Sarah

So glad you get to play in the dirt some more this year! Digging a Fall garden for us usually means shoveling snow! YUCK! Oh well, maybe one of these days we'll get back to warmer climates.

you will be having lots of fun playing in the dirt Sarah.

How wonderful for you. It's still too wet here to plant our fall garden.