6-6-6 The Evil Vegetables Begin

We haven't done much to the large rectangle o' dirt lately because we've had days of non-stop rain. One of the fun things about Florida summers is the insane thunderstorms that can last hours, flood your yard and if you're lucky ruin at least one major appliance with a power surge. Today was our first day to get outside since the rains didn't come until 7 pm.

Remember earlier I mentioned that our gardening book said "Don't Guess - Test!" and we both agreed that the exclamation point meant we really needed to get our soil tested? Well that was then and this is now. Now I have a man who doesn't read assembly instructions and likes to use power tools and who said "Bah! Soil testing? Bah!" So he bought a bag of Lime and a bag of 6-6-6 fertilizer and got to work today.

He got a little hand-spreader thingy that did not work at all to spread the lime all over the soil. It looked like some sort of biological warfare with this white powdery stuff floating all around the garden, but Farmer B insisted that we must have acidic soil because all his friends have acidic soil. So there. Lime apparently makes your soil less acidic and apparently less acidic is good. Then he spread half a bag of 6-6-6, which is some sort of fertilizer disguised as cheap bird seed. Finally he tilled it in, like a good farmer should. Afterwards we sat back and wondered whether lime and 6-6-6 should actually be put on a garden at the same time... and if not, what sort of horrible mutations that could cause.

What were the boys doing in all this excitement? They found a lone mud puddle in the yard. After splashing around in it for awhile, they decided to get sticks and go fishing in the puddle. That was fun until they realized nothing was biting and my old yellow dog kept standing in it. Then they decided to throw tiny little white flowers in the puddle and make a potion. They were very serious about the potion and said it turns people into bats. This occupied them for about 45 minutes. You know, it's fascinating stuff...being a kid with a puddle or a man with a hand-spreader thingy. I was worn out just watching them.