Gotta brag. Today my seed order arrived, along with some Purple Passion asparagus roots. Yikes, I didn't even have the bed ready along the side of the barn: it was still occupied by my compost bin and the leaf bin.

To explain: I fell and got a compression fracture in my elbow last December. My physical therapist just last week started allowing me to do "limited yard work". Man, I've been really depressed the last couple months. It has felt so good to get out and DIG for even a few minutes. But moving the compost and leaf bin and digging the asparagus bed????

But I did it! I didn't really move the leaf bin. The leaves had compressed way down, so I just moved big armfuls over to the far side, and moved the wire over so there was a four foot wide space between it and the barn. I'll deal with the rest of it later.

It turned out that with all our mild weather, nearly everything in the compost bin was at least crumbly. All I had to do was take the bin apart and I had a pile of nice fluffy compost. I set aside two garbage bags of finished stuff for seed starting, and left the rest to spread on the asparagus bed. And, blessings, because the soil had been covered, it was all weed free and friable, easy to dig. I only ordered 10 plants, so I only needed a short trench.

The roots were in great condition, and now covered in their trench, heads poking out, compost ready to fill in around them as they grow. I am so excited! And I got done before dark, even. Well, almost.

I got some black hollyhock seeds that I think I'll plant flanking or randomly in front of the asparagus, and fill in with either red or deep purple nasturtiums. Or maybe some red salvia. Do you think that will work okay? Purple, red, purple. Yum, yum, yum

Time for hot shower and ibuprofen...