I'll have to get some photos up of our progress in the backyard! I didn't get to my smaller garden today because Noel needs to put on a different sprinkler head so he can hook up some drip irrigation for me. I'm willing to wait for drip irrigation! So we concentrated on the main garden. He rototilled around the whole thing and we dragged out the clumps of grass to make it more even then laid down the black plastic. Working on top of that stuff really heats you up! After that, he pushed the utility trailer full of wood chips across the yard (that's using his muscles!) and lined it up with the edge of the garden and we used rakes to drag it all out of the trailer and then the wheelbarrow. So now, we have wood chips around our garden and once I borrow a spade from one of our neighbors I'll do some trench edging along the front of the garden since that's the only area that will need it. I may end up deciding I need to line it with bricks, but the important part is being able to mow over the edge without having to worry about wood chips flying everywhere! I'll have to look at some options. Noel may want to use the plastic liner stuff that he bought a while back, too. If that's the case, he may have to do some of the work! That stuff is tough getting into the ground! You have to dig pretty deep, especially if you want the top flush with the ground. The main thing is keeping the grass from encroaching into the wood chips.

McKenna had a blast outside with us today. She got lathered up in sunblock and 'helped' us unload some of the wood chips from the trailer with a stick she picked out of them. Then found a much larger stick (the woodchips were a little 'rough' around the edges!) and played sword. It got up to 69 today but felt much warmer in the sun, especially as the day wound down. It was a great day for doing all of this work! And don't worry, I took plenty of breaks! I mainly helped straighten out the plastic while Noel tacked it down and then I raked the chips evenly after he wheeled more over to the area I was working on. So it was fun and we were all in a good mood. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the photos up on our blog or webshots.