Garden renovation update

I was able to get more work completed before the current cold weather struck. That's a good thing too as when I walked out into the backyard yesterday, the ground was hard as a rock. It had no give whatsoever. Guess old man winter has decided to settle in for a while via winter storm Jacob.
After much work, I was able to remove about 240 of the pavers that I had distributed throughout the garden. That number kind of snuck up on me as I did not realize I had that many. It's amazing how that can happen. See, I was able to procure them from two different sources over an extended period of time. Given my propensity to get carried away, it didn't really dawn on me that I had gone so overboard. And, I paid a small price for that as seen from the photo below. To say my back was none the better is an understatement.



At this point, I have unearthed the area near my shed that was covered by the pavers. This was the most time consuming and intense work I believe I will have to undertake during the renovation. Those bricks were in place for about 5 years so they were firmly entrenched in the mother earth. But, after a consistent and prolonged effort, I am glad to report, this phase is now 100% complete. After removing the pavers, I took my tiller and evened out the bed. I did notice that there were a copious amount of worms poking themselves onto the surface. That was a very encouraging sign given nothing had been planted there for many years. I purposely did not till the whole bed as there are bulbs along the white fence that I want to transplant in early Spring. I will have to till the area again once we are out of winter. Here is the finished product.



Additionally, I was able to prep the beds against the fence and in the middle of the garden. I have to say that I am impressed with the one wheel tiller as it hasn't had any trouble breaking up the surface soil. I used to use a mantis unit that would clog and needed to be cleaned repeatedly during use. It was just so frustrating. Given the soil I was prepping had ice clumps, I don't believe the Mantis would have been efficient for this scenario. Sometimes, old school just works better. And, I do think that the Mantis was kind of destructive to my soils health. There were a bunch of worms in the two beds coming to the surface and I can only imagine the Mantis would have killed many of those worms. As you can see from the photos, the beds are thoroughly dug into for the initial cut. I will have to make another pass once we warm up.


After completing these tasks, I decided to clean up one part of my beds that I had neglected to do in the fall. I had several poles, clamps and ties that I left in the beds. I pulled the poles and ties and gathered them up. I guess the grass that was growing there hid the supports as I had way more than I remembered. As shown, that area is now decluttered and ready to be worked. And, I have recovered a fair portion of the ties which I will clean with a bleach solution to kill any bacteria that may be present. 


Well, that's where I am now standing in lieu of the ground freezing up at this time. I will have a report on the status of the my greenhouse growing endeavors in the next day or so. Until then, happy gardening everyone!