The last few years, I’ve struggled with the garden. Bad luck with weather (crazy wet followed by crazy dry spells) and poor soil meant lousy yields. This year, I am a month behind because of my back. I was dreading dealing with the sorry state the beds had become.
Today, Shawn and Kiddo pitched in to help me weed two of the four beds and turn in some compost and fresh soil. Working together, that part of the task took about two hours. I’ve also partially cleared a third bed, which I will work on later for plants that will grow through the winter (with any luck).
After lunch, I planted tomatoes and carrots in the smaller bed; squash (two kinds of zucchini and Delicata squash) plus bush beans in the larger bed. There’s room for more in both beds — additional rows of carrots for successive yields, and about two thirds of the larger bed, still to decide what to do with it — likely onions, beets, radishes, and greens (the back portion is partial shade). Here’s the before and after shots….
Large bed, before: 
Large bed, after: 
Smaller bed, before: 
Smaller bed, after: 