ANOTHER FINE DAY in the garden, except for the 50 mph winds that literally dumped the wheelbarrow and yanked the shovel out of my hands. Jeez-o-pete, as they say in Ohio. (And where is it that they say “Crime-a-nutley’?)

Yesterday fought the wind as well, completing a 32″ x 14′ garden bed with salvaged boards and setting it in place, then cobbling together a 30″x34″ soil sifting box with more salvaged lumber and some leftover hardware cloth from another project. Today, wind and all, I leveled the bed and started removing all rocks over 1/2 inches from the soil in the bed. Tomorrow I’ll add peat and sand, and possibly before day’s end I’ll plant 2 kinds of carrots, beets (both plants and seeds, thanks to successful trading at the seed swap Sunday at the Yellow House) and parsnips. Next it’ll be time to widen the existing beds and plant potatoes. Sounds like I’m charging ahead into spring, but there’s another motive for getting a lot done this week. Next week I go in for eyelid surgery, which will help my vision tremendously, but will also leave me incapacitated for a couple of weeks. If it’s going in the garden early, it’s going in now. More garden adventures to come, some of them with pictures!