Progress and a flat of basil

Have been scarce finishing the new book, attending to the wedding of my younger son, and generally running from one urgent thing to the next.  But I thought you'd like to know that the garden beds are going in this week! So excited.  A couple of photos.

The winds finally took out the twenty-five year old fences in our neighborhood so we had to have those replaced.  (The houses look much closer than they actually are, but you can see why we want to plant for more privacy.)  This photo was taken this morning, by the way.  A surprise snow storm struck overnight.

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This is this afternoon, from the upstairs window, looking down on the mapped-out garden beds.  You can see how desperately the sandy soil needs amending. Just out of the photo on the left is one of the best things about the yard, which is a tall, healthy, beautiful Ponderosa pine that will get its own box, so we can keep the desiccating needles out of the rest of the garden. That's a whiskey barrel toward the back, about four feet from the fence, for size estimations:

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This is a tomato plant, robust and nearing readiness for transplanting:

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And here is a pretty flat of basil. I will have to give some away.

 

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As I type this, there is snow coming down again, but spring can't hide from us much longer.