I'll put ANYONE to work

So Jill is here visiting - and after spending Friday chatting and shop hopping with Shellie and doing a bit of sewing - I broke down her guard...

And on Saturday I had her out in the garden - working on the addition to my veggie beds.

Smothering the space between the tree and the garden.

Now I have been smothering the grass in the area around my existing veggie beds (6 raised boxes) for a while -with tarps and cardboard.  I needed more boxes since we were expanding our rhubarb from one box to two, and since I added Jerusalem Artichokes into the mix as well.

Newly divided and transplanted rhubarb.

The grass smothering was something of an adventure.  I should have started that last fall when I first concocted this hairbrained plan - but I didn't, so the grass was already up and growing before I covered it.  The cardboard worked well for this project - the tarp not so much. Imagine my surprise to find that not only was the grass underneath the tarp as green as what was around it, but that it had grown and the dandelions had even bloomed and gone to seed underneath!   As much as I try to avoid chemical use - I attacked with the round up and soon had it under control.

So we finally had a weekend that Hubby and I were both ready to get these beds in place - the weather was good, and we had Jill as extra labor.  I was afraid if we waited much longer, the water on the tarp would be a mosquito breeding ground - plus I need to get soil into these boxes so I can get my summer squashes and pumpkins and a few other things planted for the season.

For someone allergic to grass clippings (Hubby had just mowed the lawn) and some of the other pollens floating around the yard - Jill was a real trooper and a huge help.  It was also a bit hot and humid - and our new A/C got quite the workout. 

But it looks AWESOME!!!!

View from upstairs - the grass is dead!!!

After putting down landscaping fabric and mulch around newly built planter boxes.  The cardboard is in the boxes until we can dig out the rest of the dead grass and add our topsoil in.

So what was 6 is now 9 - with a container of potatoes growing in the foreground.