Yesterday was mushroom manure delivery day: 60 – 40 pound bags of manure stacked in neat piles on my driveway, 2000 pounds in total. I asked one of my sons if he would be interested in helping me move the bags to the back of the garden for 50 cents a bag. Before he could even respond, the other son was out the door, trying to get a head start. It became a big competition (like many things are for twins) with my sons running from the front yard to the back, carrying bags under their arms or on their shoulders. Less than 30 minutes after I took the picture above, all the manure was (neatly!) stacked in the back of the garden. They decided to split the earnings equally, and I gave them each a big tip.

I don’t move quite as fast as they do, so it took me the rest of the afternoon to top up each of my garden boxes – soil levels were down about six inches. I spread the manure through the raspberry patch, I top dressed the flower bed in the back where I grow delphiniums and borage, around the rose and hydrangeas and around the roots of a few tress. I think I only spread 20 bags before it started to get dark and I went inside.

Yesterday was cool but not unpleasant, and it was nice to see that the tiny green tips of the raspberry leaves are starting to show.  I pulled a lot of weeds that were starting to come up as well as the crab grass that is creeping in everywhere. I’m glad I spent so much time out there yesterday because this morning (and most of today) it snowed. The snow drops love the cold weather and have been blooming continuously for almost two months, but I worry that some of the other flowers and plants are going to be behind schedule.