Conditions were dry enough, and the wind held off for a while in the early morning, so...
Early morning: spray persistent herbicide around the barn, house, and assorted stonework. Make sure to get the areas around the heat-pump external units; I'm reliably informed that having tall vegetation grow up around those is Bad News. Then (as the wind is picking up, alas) spray insecticide on some bushes where wasps and such seem to be congregating.
Later: pull up a row of wooden posts in the area that's designated as the perennials patch - an extension of the area where I'd already planted toe blueberry bushes. Then, while I'm at it, remove the wires and staples from the posts that are around one corner of the house, where once they supported blackberry vines or similar. This, as always, takes longer than it should.
Afternoon: fire up the tractor, extend the perennials patch, and have another go at the victory garden. Tippy the Tractor gets scary on uneven terrain - even on the bunny slopes - but I manage to get through the process without a serious panic attack, never mind a rollover*. Just running right over the former raised beds, repeatedly, with the tiller does indeed turn out to be the way to flatten them - that and redistributing the loosened soil with a shovel (or with the loader, but on this scale the shovel was easier).
Today is supposed to be rainy, pretty much straight through. Tomorrow afternoon looks like planting time!
Oh, and lessons for next time. When preparing to turn an area of old lawn/hayfield/etc. into a planting zone, maybe start a week or so early, mark the corners with snow stakes or something, mow it, and spray it with non-persistent herbicide.
Also, I should probably have a drag harrow to pull across the area just after tilling.
* Going over even a modest-sized lump, on either tractor or mower, has me thinking: why doesn't this thing have a full roll cage and 5-point safety harness? Not that anything I normally drive has such features, but somehow I feel much less secure on a tractor or mower than in a car.
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