This has been a very wet spring and early summer so far here in Wisconsin. Wow! We haven’t had to manually water our garden a single time. I snapped these pics of the ditch near our driveway one evening after yet another rainstorm.
(First looking west, then looking east.)
Just had to take a moment to say we’re loving our bountiful spinach harvest! We planted our crop on April 3rd and it’s doing very well. Yum, yum!
Bunnies. We absolutely hate them when they’re destroying the fruits of our hard labor, but you just gotta love the babies! I found three little ones hiding in our radishes this morning. Ryan gently relocated them to behind the shed. We’ll see in a month or two if we’ll be wishing we had killed them instead.
Don’t look now, but the back of our house looks… not good.
A combination of unfinished siding, unfinished painting, unfinished landscaping, and a triple-access mound system makes the view a little rough. In an effort to improve the look of the mound system, but still allow pump-truck accessibility, I started the first steps of a natural visual barrier.
Removing sod is always a fun time. Because of this, I try to work it into all my yard projects. 
As done on other sod removal occasions, I continued to transfer all removed sod to the trench valley in hopes of someday filling in the shallow ravine left by a 2005-ish mound system installation.
In the process, I found a home for some donated hostas from friends. I repositioned the hose reel stones to better accommodate the spigot, and repositioned the circular stepping stones to make a path to the future dining patio.
Sadly, this is as far as I got in 2010. I hope to continue this endeavor in 2011.
I love this vibrant color!
I’ve been wanting a new mailbox post since the first day we looked at this property in 2007. The task finally reached the priority list today, and we picked up a pre-made post (saving us lots of time, not to mention it was on sale) and made it happen.
Thankfully, the old mailbox milk jug thing was not anchored in cement, so this made removal easier. Using a measuring tape, the hole was dug deeper, deeper, deeper, until the mailbox height was in compliance with USPS mailbox guidelines.
In standard fashion, I removed a layer of grass and brought in compost in preparation for a flower bed to cheer things up. I have morning glories sprouting, which will soon be ready to climb that new pole.
Today we placed the bean and pea fencing in the garden in a fresh position for a new year. We chose the northeast corner.
I planted one row of peas, as part of a staggered planting schedule. I also managed to plant 200 onions – half yellow, half red. Very good progress!
As a final preparation for tilling, Ryan finished loading the garden with compost over the weekend while I was away.
Today we rented a small tiller and tilled the entire garden. You’ll see in the photo that we also picked up another truckload of compost and added it to the new garden section/addition. (Along with picking up a few bonfire logs, which Ryan can’t resist.)
We are now tracking almost three weeks ahead of last year! It’s fun to watch the robins swarm the freshly turned garden dirt for bugs and worms.
Today I planted the herb seeds indoors: Basil, Cilantro, Dill, Lavender, and Parsley. I also planted Moonflower seeds and started the Morning Glory seeds soaking.
Turned over enough garden space today to plant the lettuce, spinach, and radishes for the early season. Can’t wait to see the first green sprouts!
