"To Top It All Off...."

After several months of working and waiting, I finally got my arbor finished this weekend! I love it, I can already imagine what it will be like with the roses and clematis scrambling over it.

It took three of us and two ladders to wrestle the cross pieces up and into place. I held one end while Jonathan nailed the other and Larry steadied the ladders. I think we even got it pretty level too. I am just amazed at how the garden has progressed in the past year. It is close to being finished, as close as a garden can ever come; mine will always be a work in progress and always changing. The birds seem to love the changes, the plants, the water and the food. We've had a pair of White Crowned Sparrows, a Golden Crowned Sparrow, Bushtits, Chickadees, and I've seen the Rufous Hummingbirds more often than ever before. The female was even picking aphids off one of my climbing roses. We still need, dirt, dirt, and more dirt to fill in the remainder of the beds. May long weekend is the frost free date for our area and the point when so many of our seedlings can be put outside for the year and they need a place to go. Jonathan has a spot ready for the broccoli where it can be covered with some floating row cover to keep out the moths and their caterpillars, the tomatoes are being hardened off, and the pumpkins and watermelon are about ready to go outside. Now to get to some weeding!