I started this bed in the yard on Saturday, and I'm still nowhere done with it. Our ground is a wonderful mix of clay and shale, making it very difficult to dig any depth at all. You can still see a lot of the piles of rocks around the edges of the bed where I would throw them in frustration.

The bed is almost done now, just a bit more tilling and mixing of dirt and organic material, and then it will be time to plant the flowers. I'm starting in this bed with the roses that were shipped from family via my mom. I don't really know what varieties or colors they may be just yet, but the surprise is part of the fun of it. I'm also going to put in the gooseberry bush that we bought, as the soil conditions are pretty similar.

Its going to rain (or its supposed to rain) here for the next few days. I doubt I'm going to get much yard work done, unless I want to just go out and stand in the downpour. (This actually sounds like fun, I just may have to do it!)

I couldn't have asked for a better way to start spring.

I started the first project in the backyard this weekend, a small bed in which I'm going to plant roses that were sent from my family, move some bushes around that were mis-placed in the yard, and the gooseberry we ordered from Gurney's. It sounds sad to say that I worked two full days out in the yard this weekend and all I was able to manage was removing one honeysuckle bush, and tearing out one six by four foot area for a rose bed.

The honeysuckle bush by its self was enough to fill up our composting trash bin. I'm thinking I'm going to have to find a different way to get rid of all of the bushes in the back yard that I want to cut out. All of the bushes are very old so the trunks are very thick and they're full of the sucker limbs. It will probably take all summer to get that back treeline done, but I'm bound and determined to get it all done, and have it the way we want it to look.

Tomorrow I go back to the workweek grind. I'll probably finish planting the patch that I built tomorrow after work, and then I have to get started building the garden boxes that will be my next weekend project. I have three 3-foot square boxes that I will be adding to the back yard. One will be our strawberry patch, the other a raspberry patch, and the third one will be for regular veggies and plants. I'll probably be adding quite a few more of these boxes around the yard, but for now I figure 3 is a big enough project.

I'll try and post pictures tomorrow if I'm not completely wiped out.