Grass????

.... I certainly hope so because it has been a lot of work. The good news is that, if the grass actually grows, the backyard remodel project is coming to a close.

A week ago I planted the last 5 of my raspberry plants. Three of the first five plants that I planted are already growing shoots. I have 5 Boyne plants and 5 Caroline (ever bearing) plants. Next year, I am looking forward to getting to eat raspberries from mid July through the first frost. I also finished the rock bed in the corner of the sidewalk. (Half of the rock was sifted from along the edge of the sidewalk where the raspberries are now planted. Reusing has been the theme for our backyard.)
Tuesday B helped me plant our asparagus. Can't wait to eat that next year too. We also worked compost into the garden beds so I can plant those too. (I should have planted a month ago. Our weather has been so warm.) The asparagus box is the one only partially full of dirt and the blue tubs contain the dirt we have to throw on as the plants grow.

Wednesday and Thursday it was all about weeding. The whole backyard had to be weeded in preparation for seeding. B helped me for an hour and a half, the rest of the time I was on my own. 8 hours of weeding later it looked like this,

and three hours later, I was done. I actually loved every minute of it. I love to dig in the dirt. My 40 year old body was complaining pretty bad by the end though...my back, my legs, my wrists, and even the muscles in the fingers of my left hand became exhausted.

I gave the yard a good water last night to get some moisture in the soil. We have had no significant rain all spring and the ground was completely dry. Then this morning I spread the seed and threw out the straw.
And, I learned that as much as I would have loved to be a farmer (let me do physical labor outside all day....it makes me happy) I probably would not have survived. By the time I finished throwing all of that straw around the yard my nose was running like a faucet and every inch of exposed skin was itching so bad I could hardly stand it.

P.S. Please excuse the orange fencing. It is due to the construction happening on our back hill. Note our beautiful new retaining wall in the back of the last picture. It really is going to look nice once it is done. Once they take the orange fence down, I am going to have to seed the edges of my yard that I couldn't do right now due to the fence.