There is no doubt in my mind that I have one of the most industrious, energetic husbands on this planet. He amazes me! While I was away visiting family last week, he took it upon himself during his spring break (he teaches high school) to completely revamp my veggie garden. That was in addition to work he did cleaning our brick patio, weeding various areas, and other tasks. There’s no stopping Hubby!

In the veggie garden in the past month or so, he’d already added sturdy wire mesh to the bottom of the 14 raised beds to help with our vole issues. That involved emptying soil from each bed, lifting each wood frame, removing rusted mesh and attaching new mesh, replacing the frames, and refilling each bed. He also added to my strawberry beds so that I could get planting done. I’ve been champing at the bit to get my veggie starts planted, especially varieties of peas for the trellis, but the weather has been cold and damp.

While I was away he added four inches of alder wood chips to the pathways surrounding the beds. This is a wonderful solution to our weed problem, since the “grass” between the beds was virtually just weeds that wanted to spread and grow. It reduces the mowing chores, and the softer surface makes gardening even more enjoyable. Yesterday he added wood edging to keep the chips in place. I am talking about EIGHT CUBIC YARDS of alder chips. That’s four trips in his big truck. All to make my veggie garden more wonderful.

Below you can see the low wood wall he added to keep the slope contained. The small center field bore a cover crop over the winter and will be the site of our cucurbit hills this summer.

The photos show his handiwork. He also removed weed-smothering cardboard from our large soil field shown above where we will plant all our potatoes when this rain stops. Just to the left of the narrow alder path is our asparagus row which is behind schedule due to our cold weather.

It’s difficult to believe that Hubby’s out there again, measuring and preparing to install an amazing new drip irrigation system to save me time as well as water! Now that’s true love. He’s simply the best.