Garden Short- Cuts

I may feel twenty inside but the outside tells the real tale.
That's why I take liberties with the end-of-season garden clean-up.
Squeeze the summer stuff in the shed, throw the garden debris into the raised beds, and prepare to face the reality in the spring.

I read recently that the bags of dirt we buy are simply decomposed leaves, so my thrifty self says, "why not do the decomposing yourself?" Why not. Here's the test run, the berm. I stole a lot of earth from here to fill the new raised beds so the berm must build up once more, to do justice to the squashes I plant there.
A visiting son scooped a front yard's worth of fallen leaves into this space and we dumped a couple of bags of store- bought earth on to help the process along. Leave it alone for a couple of rainfalls to soak them, then the tarp is on and will remain until spring.

The fish will try out the new pond heater this year. Other than that, they are completely self-sufficient, my kind of pet.