My husband has been hard at work; the arbor and fence around the new garden annex are finished. He’s decided to leave the posts long on the new section for now. We may need to tie a barrier around them if the corn gets too tall and the deer become too persistent.

I thought I’d show you some before and after pictures:

2009

2010: Those are blueberry bushes on either side of the arbor & a raspberry bush between the blueberries and roses.

More photos from this year . . .

I guess I'd better get to weeding . . .

The potatoes in the white boxes are growing like crazy. I keep covering the green with dirt and it keeps shooting upward. We’ve gotten a load of rain lately, so things are a bit muddy right now. I plan to work on cleaning up this area over the Memorial Day weekend.

Please let me know how your gardens are coming along.

It’s time for another garden update. I promise I’ll write about something else soon, but the garden is something I’m really enjoying and I find I want to share it. I’m especially pleased at the progress we’re making on the garden annex (my name for the expanded area of the garden we started this year). My husband has begun building a fence around this area to match the fence around the raised beds. The deer eat everything here, so all of our hard work, along with all of the plants, will be lost without a fence. Here are some pictures of the latest developments:

The corn has sprouted . . .

Teepees! We have teepees! For the pole beans, of course. . .

The kindest garden fence builder. . .

The radishes and carrots are up in the raised beds. . .

Garden Helper #1

Garden Helper #2

This garden isn’t perfect and neither is this life, for anyone. But if I slow down for just a moment and watch the plants sprouting from small seeds, and listen to my children giggling as they stomp and run and swing outside, and watch my husband haul yet another piece of lumber from the garage to the garden as he builds a fence for me, for us, without ever uttering a word of complaint, I think I can almost smell the sweet scent of perfection.

I’ll take these moments and be grateful that I was able to recognize them. Because soon enough, it will be time to make dinner, to fold laundry, to unload and reload the dishwasher, again and again and again. . .