Nira, so true, this soil could use some amendments.  We are going to see how it goes.  We could have added amendments as we planted.  In hindsight a mix of peat and composted manure might have been a good idea.  But the guys were eager to get going.  I agreed we were already late in planting.  The timing of the opening of the garden with relationship to Memorial Day weekend really stunk!  It never occurred to me when they said they were bringing in compost that it would be a thin layer of it (apparently.) It had sounded to me like they were going to backfill the soil stripped with the sod with compost.  My bad!

Before I say another word, I want to say I applaud my company for doing this and their expenditure and attempt to do it right.  They just didn't know what they were doing to be honest.  We are going to make the best of it.  I am hoping lessons learned will improve how they do the soil aspect next year!  smiley: smile  I am regretting I didn't join the garden committee.  Perhaps there is still time. 

I have an excellent team. Good attitude.  Hard workers.  We are all friends and work well inside the work place and that extended to outside in the garden.  I know the most about vegetable gardening.  Just ask them, they will tell you.  I am not being conceited.  LOL.  One readily admitted from the start he knew zippo.  He grabbed a rake and started leveling out the plots.  Looked at me and asked if he was doing it properly.  Yes, good job.  Just asking, he says, made me promise him I would tell him right away if he was doing anything wrong.  He wanted to learn and would take no offence.  Another guy does flower gardening but confessed he knew nothing about vegetable gardening and wanted to learn.  The third guy seemed to know more but then....
but I am getting ahead of myself.  We haul all the stuff to the plot and line it up along the fence.  Got the ground leveled.  Started rolling out the landscape fabric.  We did make the pins from coat hangers.  I didn't think they needed to have 6" legs.  But whatever.  I started making those while the guys raked.  Well I tried to.... I cut through about two before I realized I didn't have the hand strength to keep that up.  One guy took over.  I said I was sorry.  He smiled and said don't be sorry, he was surprised I managed to do two.  Turned out 3" long pin lengths were about right... since the perimeter of the plot had so many more rocks than the middle... not saying much.  So they all had to be cut again.  Not to self:  next time have those cut ahead of time...better still, listen to the oh so sage Miss Jeans and buy landscape pins!  In some cases that was too long also.  These guys look out for me.  Then again, I watch their back also.  The one guy saw me trying to get them in and said to do the best I could and not hurt myself... I was trying to hammer it in with a rock...did I mention rocks are handily available... and if it wouldn't go all the way, leave it and he would smash them down with a shovel.  If they didn't go in they would at least bend over and not be a trip hazard.  Note to self:  next time trim the pieces to length and the center strip's width ahead of time.  It would have saved lots of time.  It took 45 minutes to even be ready to plant.  I was not the least bit surprised.  Okay the first plant is going to go in.  Whoa, wait a second, we need water, I brought a watering can.  The guy who admitted to knowing nothing asked why we didn't just water it all at the end.... I explained about concentrated water for the roots etc.  Meanwhile the 3rd guy described above already had it in the ground.  We are supposed to put water in the hole after we put the plant in.  Oh!  Couldn't we water it now?  yes but what did you do???  He said he planted a tomato plant.  He looked at my face and asked if he had done something wrong?  I gently said not really, but that was not how I planted a tomato plant.  Oh!  So he dug/pulled it back out and asked me to show him how I planted a tomato plant.  Well you want to pinch these lower leaves out and then plant it so this much is underground so all that stalk can root out producing a stronger plant.  Oh! Actually that is not what he said...he said... are you sure about that?  Are you kidding me?  Oh, you are not kidding me, that is going to take some serious digging.  Okay.... he got to digging.  And then he said... hey, maybe that is why my tomato plants never did well.  
Is this good?  Well perhaps a bit deeper... Why, the plant will fit down that far.  And where are the roots going to grow to?  Okay, he admitted I had a good point.
So, more digging.  I think it took us 10 minutes to plant the first tomato plant.  The other two wanted to learn also.  So gathered around.  After that it was my job to figure out what plant went where and give direction on how deep plants were supposed to be and how much soil had to be loosened up etc.  .....until they got the hang of it.  Then I was down on my knees planting.  And then popping up to get more plants as I knew which one went where.  And then back down again.  and then up again and then down again.  I said "popping up"... I don't get up that easily.  I really wished I had brought my garden kneeler.  LOL.  I did find the 2"x2"x3' wood posts they put at the corner of each plot to protect plots from the hauling about of garden hoses to be quite useful.  Gone are the days I could go from standing to sitting cross legged and then back up again with ease!  We all worked so hard.  One guy was suggesting we should work on my team's plot since time was running short.  I suggested we finish the one before we worked on the other.  We got more efficient.  But we were never going to finish in time.  Cell phones were ringing.  Team members were ignoring them.  I suggested they should answer the phone.  They didn't want to leave until it was done!  But they did have to.  So they did everything they could in the time left to dig/prep for me to finish off.  I thought a bit today as I was digging to loosen up the soil and get rocks out.... so I can make suggestions on how we could improve the soil for next year.  Please don't think I have given up on this year. 

We laughed alot.  Much commraderie.  Learning.  I love it.  They helped me haul all the stuff back to my car and stow it.  I got the rest of the planting done today.  I like sharing what I know with folks.  I like hearing their tidbits of wisdom.  This garden plot is fun! 

I will keep you posted on progress.......