The Garden continued

Sorry I missed you-know-who's phone call this morning.  Spent the whole day in the garden, when I wasn't getting plants and other errands.  As is often the case, didn't have the phone on me!

Here are some before and after photos:

Notice the patches of wood chips here and read the result of this experiment a few photos down.

The original wood-shavings/sawdust pile (not for garden beds, just for paths)

Hubby in process of mowing the clover down with the weed-eater. (In the foreground is what I had mowed with a regular mower a few days before this).

Going.....going.....

Gone (as you saw last time)

The sawdust in its new location plus the pile of green clover clippings - I didn't put a thermometer in there but it was too hot to hold one's hand in the middle of the clover clippings.

Now we have a pile of Red Oak fine wood chips in place, ready to go.

BR tilling the soil (Carnage of the earthworms - hence my desire never to till again after this!)

After some back-breaking work, here are half the beds done.

A few more beds.  Sunny, is that YOU again?  (Dastardly cat climbed up on my greenhouse and tore holes in it!)  Sunny, your days are NUMBERED with the transgressors.......let this be a warning to you!!  Yes, YOU! - don't look away so innocently!!

Sawdust in the pathways and wood chips on the beds with some plants planted.  In the patches of garden over which I had put mulch earlier, I just want to tell you the difference in soil quality was totally evident after only about a month.  After scraping away some of the wood chips, the soil underneath was moist, soft, crumbly and had a BUNCH of earthworms under it.  I grabbed a handful with ONE hand - caught up about 5 huge, fat, red earthworms in that small area.

The pile is almost gone!  Too bad.  Another day of back-breaking work is o'er.  I don't plan to till this garden ever again.....we'll see how that works out!