Setting the stage

Before the weekend weather went wet, overcast, and as atmospheric as a Whistler nocturne, there were a few happy hours of preparing the garden for spring.



Some 40 pounds of composted manure were dug into the larkspur and sweet pea beds in anticipation of a first (pea) or follow-up (larkspur) cool-weather sowing. The bed along the back property line was raked out of wood-chopping debris and old leaves; ivy was cut back to the limits of the stone retaining wall.

I am eager to dig, compost, rake--setting the stage for the season!