Mommy, are we going to grow horses?

After a lot of plant pulling, soil tilling, poo spreading and determination we finally got the garden ready for replanting. I'm excited to try this gardening gig again, even though I'm a bit anxious about the possible disappointment. But we keep moving forward with the hopes that we can trick a plant into growing and producing before we kill it off with our evil black thumbs.

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?

Tilling Complete

Today was an interesting day. I definitely learned a lot even if our garden doesn't look much different. Farmer B went outside with the boys to finish tilling the garden so that we could put down all of the topsoil that we bought. It turns out that there were a ton of large rooty dead stick things under the ground that made the job quite laborious, although the dog quite enjoyed all the stick chucking going on. The garden is now successfully tilled, but the topsoil is still in the trailer. Here are some of the things I learned today:

1. It can take four outfit changes before Farmer B feels that he's wearing appropriate apparel to garden AND be photographed. This caused me to laugh until I cried and suggest we call Tim Gunn for tomorrow's outfit suggestion. Tomorrow's ensemble? A knotted neck scarf and a ferosh pair of pin-striped capris and galoshes? Stay tuned.



2. The boys have never seen a garden worm before. We found one. It was very gross. I was sure it was somehow poisonous and could possibly try to burrow into your skin if you touched it. I don't know the difference between a nice happy garden worm and some parasitic poisonous beastie, so we poked at it with a stick and let it crawl away. I am yet to be one with nature.
3. A large german shepherd can till and loosen soil with his front paws quicker than any gas-powered lawn tiller.
4. If you wear a white fitted tshirt and your new denim short-shorts to garden, there is a good chance your husband will accuse you of not wanting to get dirty and not being serious about the garden. He's right about half of that - I am very serious about the garden. Note to self: Must do more wardrobe changes tomorrow.


5. In July in Florida it is apparently too hot to work outside after about 10 a.m. We got started at about 9:45 a.m. This explains why the topsoil is still in the trailer and two of the three boys are napping right now.

It's all Happening Now!

We took a big step today. We started the garden. And by "we" I mean my husband, of course.


We measured out a 10 x 20 area in the yard near the well for easier irrigation and because that's what the gardening book told us to do. Then the hubby (we'll call him Farmer B) took the oldest boy to buy 3 yards of organic topsoil and 3 foot high fencing for the perimeter. Living in FL we have this horrible sandy soil, so we'd heard that buying topsoil was the way to go - and we need all the help we can get. We have two young boys who like to dig and a dog with an obsession with dirt, so the fence is to keep them out - and any yard critters who want a midnight snack. We have armadillo issues in our yard and the periodic bunny, so we'll see if they can get through our fence.


Farmer B then got our new Honda Mini-Tiller and tilled the grass. I do wonder if this garden was just an excuse for him to have another gas-powered man tool. We went back and forth over whether we should remove the grass or till it into the soil. I figure that if (when) this is a huge failure we might be able to leave it alone and let grass re-grow there so leaving the grass seemed like a good idea - and it was less time consuming for Farmer B in the 90+ degree heat. It looked like less work to me from the air conditioned comfort of our living room. We have no idea if we have too much topsoil - or what stops it washing away once we dump that trailer-load of dirt on the garden and our summer monsoon-like rains hit that thing. Maybe we'll look into 2 x 4's or railroad ties?



So today was a good start. We have no idea what to do next.