This is the new bed I dug on Sunday. And this: is the bed I have yet to dig.

The second bed defeated me. I’m not a very big person, and so digging means sticking the flat-end spade in, standing on it, and either wiggling it side to side or sort of jumping on it until it goes in. Because this is old sod, I have to do this from a couple of angles before I can pull up a chunk of sod, shake as much soil off as I can, and then chuck it in the can for the town compost heap (I have enough problems with grass, I’m not putting this in my own compost heap). So, although I got the small bed done and planted on Sunday, the big bed is going to take a while. Especially since it seems that there’s only about 6 inches of soil before you hit the gravel that provides all the fill behind the concrete wall at the front of my yard. Which means that in order to finish this project I’m going to have to deal with my compost things in the back yard, most of which are full of compost at the bottom, but that have a lot of junk on top. By Sunday afternoon it all got a little overwhelming, so I gave it a rest.
I’ve been meaning to dig beds in the front for a couple of years, but it wasn’t until my friends Bill and Maryanne gave me some dwarf spireas that didn’t do well in their yard that I got the incentive. So I bought a couple of Terese Bugnet roses (the only ones that made it through the winter at my local nursery) and some mock orange (because I love the smell) and I’m finally planting the front. I’m also sort of hoping it will help with the hysterical dog-barking that goes on when people pass by. My dogs are pretty good about garden beds at this point, and I’m thinking a Harrison’s Yellow rose on the corner might help as well — not only are they beautiful, but they’re very very thorny.