Garden Project

Last weekend, we had volunteered to help with Sunday school classes Easter morning, so that meant we weren’t going out of town for the weekend. So, with nothing much to do on Saturday, we decided once and for all to get our garden started. We’d wanted to have a garden since we moved in here 2 ½ years ago, but just never got it done. Well, wit hmost of the weekend available, I did a little more research on how we wanted to do things, checked out the location in the yard, then headed off to Home Depot & Menards. We came home with some boards & nails (for the border – it’s a raised garden because our soil is mainly clay), and some seeds. And we had about 100 40-lb bags of topsoil delivered to our house a little bit later. Luckily the topsoil was on sale.

We had a quick lunch then got to work measuring and marking the border. We then called up a rental place, which luckily had a tiller available. We thought we’d only need it for a couple hours, but they were closing soon, so we got it until Monday morning. Good thing we did – it took a little longer than planned. Jock worked on tilling while Kaylen played (me some too), and I also did a few other things around the yard. I dug out last year’s refuse that my daylilies were starting to come up through, and then dug out the leaves from my hydrangea and our useless blueberry bushes sticks. Not sure they’ll ever produce a crop, but we’ll see.








When Jock was finished with the first round of tilling, we dumped about 20 bags of topsoil to mix in with our clay. Then we took a break for supper (pizza), and Kaylen took her shower and got ready for bed while Jock and I put together the frame. (I hope the neighbors didn't notice when she came to the sliding door buck-naked asking us what to put on – then not understanding me, she tried coming back outside in her dirty muddy clothes before promptly getting hollered at to take off the dirty clothes, put on PJs, and find a good book to read indoors before bedtime! :)

Easter Sunday we were at church most of the morning – teaching during the first service, and attending the 2nd. After church & a quick lunch, we debated a much-needed nap, but thought we’d better get the garden job done first or it wouldn’t ever get done. The last task was dumping & leveling out the remaining topsoil. Jock brought them in the wheelbarrow 3-at-a-time from the driveway, while I cut them open, dumped, and spread it out, and Kaylen took a break from her playing every now and then to throw away the bags. The job was finished by around 3:00, and we then collapsed from tired, sore muscles, and mild sunburns from Saturday. Our plan was to have a nice Easter dinner Sunday evening, but we were too tired, so we saved it until Monday. Some countries celebrate Easter Monday – we were just trying to go global with our holiday celebrations. ;)

Here's what it looks like now - about 10' x 16'. Tonight I smoothed out the soil and then planted a row of lettuce. In early May, I plan to plant radishes, beets, green beans, summer squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash, cucumber, tomatoes & green peppers. We debated onions, but decided against them. Jock requested the radishes & beets, otherwise we would have had more room for beans. I have also tasked Jock with putting up a fence to keep out little critters (and the dog). I do not want to share my produce with rabbits! We also discussed with Kaylen that toys, children, dogs & rabbits are not allowed in the garden - except for children when they have been asked to help. She thought this was kind of funny, but got the message.