Getting the back yard ready for Summer!

Last week I started the dreadful task of ripping out the sod to make way for my vegetable garden. I'm planning at 16x6 foot raised bed garden along the slope of the north side of the yard. I have removed a little over 1/2 of the sod, but then cold weather and rain came and derailed my project. I'm hoping that I can can finish this up with week so that we can go buy the lumber to build the frame of the bed next week.

We also finished building a cold frame for the south side of the house (where I used to have my pathetically tiny vegetable garden last year). I found a great window on clearance at Menards for less than $30 that opens and has a screen for ventilation. I picked up some 12x2 lumber to build up the frame. A quick project for around $50. right now I have some rosemary and lavender out in it since it's still a little too cold at night to plant them out.

And the biggest addition to the back yard in preparation for summer is the covered gazebo that we purchased from Target last week. It's going to give up a nice shady place to sit in the summer and a reason to entertain. We not only purchased the gazebo, but also an outdoor chandelier so we can sit out there at night.

So far we have only got the first part of the frame up. We need to go buy concrete screws so we can anchor it into the cement patio. Once that is done we can put the top tier of the frame on and the canopy and curtains. I can't wait!