March 19, 2026

Preparing the Ground for What’s New

Yesterday, I went outside in short sleeves and a sun hat, fully lathered up in sunscreen.


In March.


Is this weather crazy, or what?!? But the garden waits for no one (or better weather). My task: prepare the ground for a thornless raspberry, some sweet peas, bare root peonies, and a handful of lilies. One of my goals for this year was to not dig up more grass, but utilize the gardening spaced I already have more efficiently. This space previously contained a *flesh-eating* climbing rose and a lot of weeds, so I set to work turning over the soil, amending with compost, adding nitrogen, removing thousands of rocks, and covering the area with cardboard and mulch to suppress any new weeds. One sweaty hour later, I was done! I can appreciate a “manicured” garden bed, but I am excited for when green things start growing with gusto and bring life to this previously lifeless space.