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Another day shoveling compost. I didn't get as much done as last weekend, but I think the remnants of my cold was slowing me down. I unloaded about 12 wheelbarrows, and then Georg did the rest when he got home from work. (Which sucked, his having to work on a Sunday, but what can you do.) I was so tired afterwards that I fell asleep on the couch watching TV.

Now that whole huge bed is ready to plant. And to celebrate I did a little planting: the sweet peas! Really I think I'm supposed to wait until all danger of frost is past, but they were getting so scraggly and overgrown in their little peat pots. They really needed to be in the ground. Besides we're not supposed to have another frost all week. I hope they do well!

Thirteen has been acting a little wiggy on and off all day. I think she's still upset about the bathtub incident yesterday. Everytime I think about it I feel just awful. Who knows how long she was in there. It must have been her worst nightmare: alone, trapped in the dark, in the bathtub. Poor thing.

I had a nice chat with Kelsey, the little girl who lives next door. I have to say, I like her so much more now that she's reached the ripe old age of second grade. When she was a toddler she used to hassle me endlessly about the dogs, just couldn't understand when to leave them alone. But she seems much more sensible now. We can even have a conversation. She said she wanted to plant some flowers around her clubhouse, so I got out my seed packets and let her have one. (She picked the butterfly weed.) I told her about Lina and she seemed genuinely interested, asked me lots of questions. I told her that Thirteen was lonely since she lost her playmate, and Kelsey suggested I should get Thirteen a new playmate. Which I have to admit has occurred to me. But it will have to wait because I'm traveling so much right now.

I found out a little more about the Charlotte auto fair. There is going to be electricity at the site, but no net access. Which is a bummer, I was hoping I could take my laptop and work there. The other bummer is that they are going to keep our cars for the duration, and provide a shuttle to get us to the hotel. On the bright side, the hotel is in walking distance of many restaurants, and has high speed net access. Maybe I could just stay in my room during the days to work! No, I need to be at the show to keep the bubble machine filled. Sigh. I can think of people who would enjoy four days trapped in the largest car show in the southeast, but unfortunately I'm not one of them. I'll have to go to the library beforehand and stock up on books.

I was at the city dump today getting another truckload of compost, and the guy there told me they'll have free dumping every Saturday in April. Woo hoo! Time to clean out the shed!

Another day of lots of yardwork. Not as strenuous as yesterday, but I spent the whole day working outside, so again I was kind of tired by the time I quit. Here's what I got done:

• spread the rest of the compost -- there turned out to be only 2 more wheelbarrows full -- and swept out the truck.

• returned the truck, stopping to fill the tires on the way. Which seemed to solve the steering problem, yay! The truck is still old, beat up, cranky, easy to stall and hard to brake, but at least it wasn't fishtailing all over the road.

• went to Whole Foods in my dirty, worn gardening clothes, and did not care. Went in hungry and got a salad so big I couldn't eat it all in one sitting.

• planted shallots and beets in two of the new beds!

• covered the new beds with straw, which you're not supposed to do at this time of year because it prevents them from warming up, but I'm concerned about the soil washing away.

• found a couple packages of daylilies on the porch that I had bought last fall and forgotten about, and planted them with the other daylilies. Apparently daylilies really are indestructable. Those guys sat in plastic bags with a little sawdust all winter, and every single one sprouted.

• swept up the compost that had fallen out of the truck onto the driveway, and put it on the herb garden.

• removed the big, ugly, Lina-proof fence from the hydrangea beds. Raked leaves off the beds while the fence was down. Moved a couple of hydrangeas that were too far back under the awning & not getting enough rain. Put up a low, unobtrusive fence that's guaranteed to keep out aging dogs who can barely walk.

• used the big, ugly fence to make a leaf compost pile behind the house.

I think that's all. A productive day if I do say so myself! And what a beautiful day to be outside. I think it must have been in the 70s. I know we're supposed to have nasty weather again tomorrow, but this afternoon it felt like it could never be cold again. Thirteen hung out with me for much of the day, but by mid-afternoon she was panting and seemed hot. I couldn't get her to move to the shade so I put her inside. After she cooled down I left the door open for her to come back out if she wanted, but she stayed inside.

I realized yesterday that one of reason I've done so little in the yard the past month (besides the weather of course) was Lina. Every time I thought about gardening, I'd think about how she used to follow me around while I worked on the yard, and that would make me too sad to do anything. Yesterday I was taking a break from shoveling, sitting on the steps drinking a glass of water, watching Thirteen and thinking about how much Lina would have loved such a beautiful day and how much I wished she were there with us. It occurred to me that since I was thinking about her, in a way she was there. It's corny and hokey, but it made me feel better.

On a happier note, perennials from last year are starting to sprout! Down by the road the obedient plant, black eyed Susans, sedum, goblet flower, and bronze fennel are all up. Up near the house all the hydrangeas are sprouting, except for the one that Lina killed by chewing up all the branches. All the daylilies from David's dad look great. And the herbs are starting to show signs of life too. There are also a bunch of things that haven't sprouted, but it's early yet.

I know this isn't anything monumental. Perennials come up every year; that's what they do. But still it's a great thrill for me to see the plants that I put in the ground last fall coming back. It's the first sign that I may not be a total failure at this gardening thing.

I got almost all the compost spread! Almost a whole truck full, one shovel at a time. I made four nice big raised beds, about half what I need. I had measured out the beds in advance, and put down newspaper and straw on the paths between them. All I had to do today was load the compost onto the wheelbarrow, dump it onto the beds, and smooth it out.

Is it OK to use pure compost as the soil in a vegetable garden? My original plan was to mix compost and topsoil, but I heard that the topsoil at the dump is bad, lots of clay. And I can't really afford good garden soil from a commercial place like Sands & Soils. Well I could, but I'd much rather use this beautiful, dark, crumbly and very cheap compost -- $7.50 for a whole truckload! I am never buying compost in bags again! -- and save that money for more plants.

I had to take a break to move a bunch of daylilies, which David's dad had given me last fall. I had plopped them into holes left by stumps, just to give them a place while I figured out where their permanent home will be. I did decide on a permanent home (in front of the fence, by the road) but I won't be ready to plant them there until the fall. But their current location is where the raised beds go, so they had to be moved now.

When I took the daylilies out of the ground I found tons of big, fat worms. Which was a big relief since my soil is so bad and typically has very few worms. If they can find a pocket of nice soil in the middle of all that hard clay, then they'll be sure to get into my new beds. I found a place where the daylilies can stay all summer: at the corner of the house, by the hydrangea bed. They'll get nice sun there and (I hope) keep weeds from springing up. By fall when I move the daylilies, I'll have figured out what to put in that corner.

It looks like there may be just enough compost left in the truck for one more bed, and I had thought to finish up this afternoon. But after moving all those daylilies (they filled my whole wheelbarrow, in two layers!) my back started to complain. So I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and quit for the day. This way I'll feel fresh tomorrow and ready to get more done.

Came inside and took a long shower to wash all the grime off myself. Now I'm in my jammies and oh so glad I didn't try to keep working. As soon as I stopped moving I realized how tired I was. I had planned to make myself a batch of Lisa's amazing spinach casserole for dinner, but that's not happening now. Luckily I have lots of good leftovers. Now I'm going to go lie on the couch and watch movies. Georg is away for the night so it's just me and Thirteen.

Finally got off my ass today, borrowed my friend David's truck, and went down to the city dump to buy compost. It sounds kind of weird to buy compost from the dump, but they collect yard waste there & convert it to mulch & compost which they sell. Besides, it's not right at the dump, it's up a gravel road, on the other side of a big hill, about a mile back from the dump.

It took me a while to figure out where the heck I was going -- they have free samples of the mulch and compost up front, and I thought that's where I would get my truckload -- but eventually (with the help of a guy who clearly thought I was a total ditz, but at least wasn't rude about it) I found the compost area. It's not as nice of a setup as Sands & Soils, and the guy came at my truck sort of diagonally, so the load fell in at an angle, much of it spilled out on the ground and I had to go back (walking through mucky compost) and shove the pile down into the corners of the truck with my hands, getting dirt all over myself. But at 1/4 the price, I'm not complaining. Besides, the guy saw that he had spilled a bunch of my compost and dumped more in, so I got my full truckload. And I was wearing my gardening clothes and shoes anyway so it didn't really matter that I got all dirty.

David's truck is old and not in the greatest of health, and I thought I was used to its quirks. The drive back from the dump, however, was another matter. It was making this crazy loud noise, and the steering was loose and scary -- I mean fishtailing back and forth so bad that if I got up to 35 mph, it felt like it was going to swerve into the other lane of its own accord. I swear that truck was trying to kill me.

Needless to say, I drove very slowly to keep the steering manageable. Alas, the hazard lights didn't work, so no one behind me knew why I was going so slow. (Well, anyone who gets stuck behind a bashed in old truck that's carrying an open load of dirt and is fishtailing back and forth, and is surprised that the truck is going slow, is an idiot. But then I've observed that many people are idiots on the road.)

Made it home safely, whew! And discovered that the noise and the swerving were probably caused by two unrelated problems: First, a stick caught in the undercarriage. And second, both rear tires are almost totally flat. It must have been okay driving out with an empty bed, but with all that dirt weighing down the back end, no wonder the poor truck was trying to kill me.

So I'm home and have my day's work cut out for me: shoveling compost! fun! But first I feel a little woozy from trying to control the truck. And also probably from the truck leaking exhaust into the cab, now that I think about it. I'm going to rest and eat lunch before I start working.