Gardening

This past weekend my brother in law and his girlfriend came over to help get the garden started.  With the wife in her last month of pregnancy, and me with a gimpy foot, it’s been hard to get yard work done on my own.  The BIL’s girlfriend also wanted a place to garden, as they don’t have one, and I gladly would share our space to help alleviate some of the work.  With the baby almost here, I know my available time for yard work is going to go way down. 

So, yesterday we tilled (manually...ugh) half the garden.  A little back story on the garden first though.  When we bought our house last year, the garden hadn’t been touched in years.  It was full of weeds that were well over 6 and 7 feet tall, some of them very woody.  Last year I killed them off, and chopped them down.  This spring I tarped the rest of the garden over to try and kill off whatever was left and attempting to grow. Luckily, we got most of it.  So, back to the tilling.  Luckily, my lazy streak, foot pain, and slight ability to think logically all came together, and instead of tilling all 10x20 some feet of garden, we decided to only do half.  Smart move, considering the soil was basically clay and had been extremely compacted. We hadn’t bought a ton of vegetables, so there was really no need to break our backs doing the whole garden.  After finally getting our roughly 10x 10 (maybe 10x 12?) section tilled, we mixed in 200 lbs of compost and added 400 lbs of top soil.  It barely made a dent in raising the level as high as I would like it, but this is going to be a multi year process.  We planted some zucchini , a couple different varieties of tomatoes, straighneck squash, and finally some red, green, poblano and cayenne peppers.  We then re-tarped the other half of the garden for now. It’s possible that I may till and get it ready for a late summer/fall crop, but I’m not worried about it right now. If that doesn’t happen, there is always next year. 

We also planted some deck boxes of herbs.  Thyme, Dill, Basil (in it's own pot), oregano, rosemary and parsley.  I’m hoping they get enough light sitting where they are, I’ll have to keep an eye on them. Herbs and deck boxes are new to me, so we’ll have to see.

I also planted a spearmint plant along the back of the house. The previous owners were absolutely horrible at landscaping, and taking care of the yard in general. So, the bed that is along the house is half full of rocks, and weeds.  I will clean the rest of the bed out, and I plan on putting in a root barrier and letting the mint proliferate all throughout the beds along the house as decorative plants/ground cover. Mint is obviously also good for cooking, and making Mojitos.

We also have two apple trees in back that my dad and I have been trying to rehabilitate them, as they were never pruned or taking care of.  Hopefully, they’ll produce again, and we can harvest some apples this year. They did produce last year, and since we’re getting them back into shape, I hope we can get some better fruit this year.  In the future, I’d like that add a couple more beds for berries. Raspberries and strawberries for sure, and maybe we’ll attempt something else too. 

All of this work will hopefully pay off.  I’d really like to have the garden, and the rest of the yard producing for when the baby starts growing up.  It’d be nice to have fresh veggies and fruit for her, and also to teach her how to garden, and about self sufficiency.  Plus, it’s another great way to make sure we’re outside, enjoying fresh air, and not watching TV.