Preparing the Garden

Last weekend we started prepping our garden, which is located along the alley behind our garage.  Luckily we didn't plant anything (aside from a few cheap flower seeds) because it snowed twice this past week.  Oh Smarsh the wonderful month when the weather is unpredictable.

Alma and I had already spent several weekday afternoons moving pavers to set up a walk way along the garage wall and a separate flower bed by the sidewalk (so the local dogs who are out on walks don't pee on our vegetables).  So Joshua and I spent the day picking not only rocks (of which there were few) but bricks and entire cinder blocks (of which there were a surprising number) out of the soil and tilling the entire thing. 

As you can see in these photos, Alma's contribution to garden work is to lounge on her mini Adirondack chair, eat snacks and point out birds that fly by.  Oh, and she also makes a mean pile of shriveled up tomatoes from last year's missed harvest. 

Yes, the paint is chipping horribly from the side of the garage.  Any suggestions for hiding it?  The idea of fixing the problem with paint doesn't sound as fun as elaborate plans to build a huge structure to hide it.  Planters that hang down from the side of the garage?  Huge planters that sit on the pavers?  A flying dragon that distracts you from noticing the chipping paint?  To me, all of these sound like more fun that actually fixing the problem.  

Joshua also moved some extra pavers so that we don't have to walk through a huge pile of mud to get out the back gate.  Hooray!  Now we just need to talk to his mom about how to make our thriving lilac bushes into multiple lilac bushes for the yard....