Garden - Getting ready

I want the spring to be here so badly. I have all these wonderful, amazing plans and there is so much to do to make it all happen, but my hands are tied by this cold weather. Today I shifted the compost, and it came out perfect. It is a rich dark, dark brown almost black. Shifting is just like panning for gold, but its the stuff that falls through into the wheelbarrow that is the prize. It has a nice texture (it was a little frozen, so a little wet by the time I was done) and smelled like sandalwood and citronella. If I am lucky, I should have another batch ready before planting time, barrel two is already full, hence why I was emptying barrel one today, there was no place for my kitchen trash. Composting is easy, once you get started and it leads to better and cheaper gardens. It also makes me feel good about sending much less trash to the landfill.

I also swept the deck, and put away the torches and the grill. I know these are things that should have been done a month ago, but you get to it when you can.

The garden layout looks wonderful, I don't feel like explaining what all the pretty colors mean. If you want to know, I can email you a copy of the garden plan. Planting will be around April 15 for most things. I will be starting most of the crops in flats, some as soon as next month. So I guess I should start building flats. I still need to order the seeds too. I want to have just a one or two types of each crop, to keep down on the cost of seeds, and the confusion of me. Purple cauliflower would be interesting.
It is going to go here, with the two long plots going parallel to the neighbors yard and to the road. The long plots are each 5 foot x 20 foot. If this year goes well, we should not have to buy any veggies all spring or summer. With the money we save, we are going to try to buy only local meat,milk and eggs (I wish I had chickens).

I also need to turn the back yard into a good place to have a wedding in four months. There will be garden paths, roses and a butterfly garden. Maybe a water feature, if Puck will pay for it.