The garden is up; the fence is down

Peas planted three weeks ago at least, before the snow and then the flood and then the weeks of rain, sleet and hail, those peas are sprouted.  And the kale too.  Still no sign of the shallots or fava beans, but I'm hopeful.  Optimism and willingness to work in the rain are the two most important qualities for successful gardening in the maritime NW as far as I can tell.

The second lift of peas went in this weekend.  (Sounds so huge, it is only really two more short rows, about four feet each, the width of the raised beds.)  Carrots went in too.  Romaine.  More kale.  Planted by Liam and me on the first sunny day in ages, and slept their first sleep under the biggest full moon one could wish for.  Beets and other lettuces will follow soon.  Summer broccoli.  And we'll go on that way for a while until June when maybe it will be warm enough for the pole beans to go in and the basil.  In July I'll get tomato transplants from the Farmer's Market, and maybe a hot pepper or two.

Liam found some side-shoots from the overwintered purple-sprouting broccoli when he was helping me plant.  He was so excited to eat it raw from the garden; purple broccoli was a revelation.  It was a beautiful purple, but none of the pictures came out.

Just before the great snow, yes, before, I started a somewhat misguided front-garden-wall-replacement-project.  The fence did not survive the great melt/flood/deluge and collapsed into the back excavation for the new wall, so now it has become a wall and fence replacement project.  I got into this sideways when the north side neighbor mentioned that the fence line zigged when it ought to be straight and it should be fixed in a way that would give me four more feet of sun.  Four feet of sunny front yard perfect for blueberries?  Okay, I can get comfortable with that.  Except the elevation difference between my place and her's is about three feet in the front.  So, the side wall needed to be moved.  And it is, of course, attached to the front wall.  So I think, if we're going to get into this we should do it right and just replace the whole crooked, cinder-block wall mess with something that will look decent.  Thus began the total replacement of the wall; and now the fence too.  Note to self: leave things well enough alone already.

It has been too wet and rainy to get the wall in right for most of the past two weeks, but Friday's half dry day started real progress again and I'm cautiously hopeful that they might wrap it up this week.  Liam is very much enjoying watching all this unfold, from the big truck with detachable forklift that delivered the blocks, to the wall digging and progress, to, especially, the mud pit that used to be our parking strip. 

Happy first day of spring; we are ready for it around here, that's for sure.