Aidan was a GREAT helper pulling up all the plants from last season. I haven't seen this kid this happy helping out in a long time. This is a synopsis of our conversation.
You mean I can pull up the plants?
Yes
And throw them against the fence in an explosion of soil and leaves?
Yes
He felt great man-power from this and as Martha would say…it was a good thing.
Then my man-tool-operating Farmer B stepped up to the plate with the gas-powered tiller and went to town tilling the garden.
It looked almost back to something recognizable when he was done. That man of mine does work hard and I appreciate him for it.
Of course the magnificent ending involved Aidan and I poo-flinging with our newly-acquired trash can of horse manure. Funny how kids put things together in their heads.
Aidan and I are taking shovels of horse poo and spreading it around the garden when he looks at me pensively and says
"Mommy, are we going to grow horses?"
It was a valid question. Everything else we've spread on the garden was in an attempt to grow said item. So if you spread horse poo, logic could dictate that you're trying to grow horses. The rest of the day has involved questions about horse poo, gardens and just animal poo in general.
The dog quite enjoyed this Smörgåsbord of deliciousness. Please don't tell Farmer B. He just washed the dog and he doesn't smell like goat for once, so I don't want him knowing that he was frolicking in horse manure all day.
I got to work too and decided to take a photo of myself hard at work so you could see that I really am a shovel-carrying, horse-poo-flinging gardener.
Now we whip out the Florida Veggie Gardening book and see what we should plant...I have potatoes, sweet potatoes and lettuce on the list, but that's it. Actually I need a good how-to vegetable gardening book, you know the kind - how to thin, how deep to plant, when to transplant, etc. Since I did so much wrong last time, maybe I need more direction. Anyone got any book recommendations for me?
Hello again, this has become my morning coffee blog read.
ReplyDeleteI have been referencing many books:
The Victory Garden Essential Companion (wonderful but based more on New England weather)
The New Self Sufficient Gardener (a neat book written by a man who gardened in the English countryside many years ago)
The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control (LOVE this book, easy to diagnose problems and helpful to try and prevent them in the first place)
Happy Gardening!
Anything by Steve Salomon. He mainly writes for us gardening-challenged people in the Pac NW, but his information on the produce itself is phenomenial!
ReplyDeleteThen, as your garden grows to incorporate so much that you can't even imagine how you are going to fit a fraction of it in your bed, check out Square Foot Gardening. This gentleman gives you the tools you need to bypass all the thinning nonsense. ;o)
Good luck!! Hope all your poo flinging is greatly rewarded this year!
Oh yes....the dog and the horse poo. Mine does the same thing! I think you'll get great results from the book "Crockett's Victory Garden". That's what Granny uses, and she swears by it.
ReplyDeleteEG
I'll have to think about the book, but had to let you know I'm trying to catch up with my blog reading, and plan to come back later in the day, as it is time to get to work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the delightful laughs to start my day with!
I know someone with horses, and keep forgetting to get over to get some manure to put on my compost pile.
Have a great day!