My Handy New Garden Present

Look what I got for Christmas! My lovely husband has been keeping this under a tarp in our tractor shed since before the holidays (I'd been hinting about needing one of these for some time) and last week was the first time I went out and uncovered it to take a look.

Its 10-cubic-foot-capacity can hold about twice as much material as a standard wheelbarrow and has two wheels on the front for added stability. Our other wheelbarrow is simply too small to be useful for clearing away the huge amounts of cut-down plant material in both spring and fall, and I have been using a large plastic garbage can, which is hard to drag across the yard to the compost and burn piles (and it's tearing near one of the handles from the stress of being dragged around). This looks like it'll do the trick. I think I'll call it "Big Blue."

Big Blue gets its first workout -- I made my kids pick up fallen sticks
and branches from the back yard while I was laid up with a cold last week.

My new garden equipment will soon get a taste of much harder work than this, when I begin spring cleanup in earnest (as soon as we get some slightly warmer, less windy days -- what's the point of getting an early start if it's not a joy to work outside after a long winter, the sun on your back, feeling the earth warm up beneath your feet?). My spring work is certainly cut out for me:

The 70-foot-long Rainbow Border. There's a lot of brush to cut out
and haul away from here.

The Herb Garden. Out with the old, to make room for the new.

And the Front Border definitely needs some attention.

Last fall, I cut back all back most of the plants in the Front Addition
Border, except these mums and sedum. Time to finish the job.

There are numerous other areas that will also need material cut back and hauled away, and I might be able to use my new toy for adding compost to my beds too -- such a handy item might have endless uses! I look forward to using my new garden present. Go Big Blue!