GARDEN REPORT - New Garden!!

... some assembly required.

by Robin

You'll have to forgive me if I have strange typos or dangling participals in this blog. My fingers are numb, my arms are like jello and my brain is exhausted. You see, for two weekends now, we've been working on a new garden.

We were so very excited to be eating our homegrown broccoli on a weekly basis.



It's not a beautiful garden, but it did manage to survive the first round of freezing temps. My okra stopped producing, so they are gone. The beans are long gone too. But the broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, herbs and tomato plants are still there. I brought some inside for the freeze and others were covered with a plastic tarp.



We women have to be very careful how we approach our husband when requesting to tear up our yard. We had a garden in this spot before and Jack had requested that we let the gravesite (as he loves to call it) to grow over with grass. I complied. However, with inflation beginning to take it's toll on our grocery bill, it gave us more reason to reconsider our plot of grass.

What is so important about grass? It's attractive, yes. But, there is so much upkeep over grass. Watering. Fertilizing. Mowing. I do think it is a bit overrated. (Especially in 90+ deg heat)



So, I presented my idea to Jack to go all-out in that sunny corner of the yard with a new garden. I didn't even have to bat an eyelash and he was game for it. As soon as we came home from church, we put on work clothes. He smoked a turkey while we all took turns with the tiller & then many times of raking out the dead grass to see where we still needed to till.



I have to say, we were mighty pleased with our progress. Me and Simon Peter (yes, yes... I know, my grammar stinks here) took off to the local home improvement store and we bought 10 bags of topsoil. As you can see, it didn't go very far. Looks slightly darker, but honestly, didn't put a dent in what I wanted to accomplish.



A week later, I was networking with the local Urban Hillbilly and she tells me that her raised beds are 100% horse manure. What? Well, that sounds so very easy compared to months & months & months of composting. I had already put a bunch of fish bodies in holes in the garden, but that was going to be labor intensive for minimal fertilizer. So.... I decided to head out to the local horse farms.



On my first (& only stop since I was so blessed) stop, I was able to score a number to the owner and she was readily agreeable to letting me have some of their manure. Thank you Ms. Horse lady!!!

Bright & early this morning (about 10 am), I loaded up the boys (i.e. free labor) and we headed off with 2 big tubs, 2 recycle bins and 2 shovels. We made friends with the horses, the barn kitty and went to work.



We put four SUV loads (of 4 bins each time) into the new Garden (#2). As you can see, we barely made a dent in this hill. It didn't smell bad either (IMO), although my youngest may find that debatable.



And went back for a 5th load of manure for the original garden (#1). I dumped the recycle bins into it right away and am holding onto the other 2 tubs, full of poo, for the spring planting. Garden #2 is now a few inches deep of pure horse manure (straw & some dirt). It is getting a slight raised-up look.



I do hope that in a month, when my fingers & arms have recovered, I can go back and get another couple/few loads right before I plant. I'm interested in seeing if I can get spinach & lettuce to grow in the better soil. Heaven knows that it doesn't like the sandy soil that God gave us here in Florida. Plus, we will be installing another drip irrigation system for this garden. I hope to have amazing results this year.

Thanks for following me through this super-poopy post. Hope it didn't stink (LOL).

God bless America!
Robin