We've Made Garden Progress!

Like, actual, honest to goodness progress in the big garden! It rained for a week straight, and I have 4 (now 3) days before another week of rain so yesterday I decided to buckle down and get it done. The problem is, once I cut the weeds the soil will erode unless mulched. But before the mulch goes down compost has to be added. So it has to be all done at once before any rain or not done at all. It was a family affair. Brad and Liam spent the day inside. It was the longest continual period of time I have gotten to work on stuff outside since Liam has been born. Daddy fed him, and changed him, and even got him to sleep! I just popped in to nurse him a few times and snuck back out. It was amazing!

While Liam and Daddy were inside, Keegan and I were outside. In true teenage fashion, Keegan was forced, kicking and screaming... ok fine. Not actually kicking and screaming, but grumbling, and groaning, and whining, and telling me how mean I am for not letting him play video games and watch tv inside on one of only two days off he gets a week. It didn't last too long though. It seems to be a detox withdraw kind of thing when teenagers are extracted from their lair and placed in bright sun away from all manner of bright flashy mind controlling electronics. Luckily he had a "replacement patch" of sorts in the form of his ipod which he used to text his friends at every available moment. Usually having a shovel propped against him as he waved his fingers around on the screen, appearing to be casting some sort of spell on it. How do they type so fast with no keys?! I feel so old. I still refuse to get rid of my flip phone. I would really never accomplish anything if I could carry the internet around with me in my pocket!

Anyway, we finally got some stuff done. After the grumbling is over, I love working outside with Keegan. It is nice to be able to have decent conversations with him and laugh. He is a funny guy. Always making jokes and laughing. My favorite comedian and one of my very favorite people to spend the day with.

Before and after pictures make me happy too. Nothing makes me feel like I have accomplished more than when I have photographic evidence for comparison purposes. Unfortunately, I never remember to take the before picture until after I have started working. Just imagine all of the beds looking like the really grassy one on the left.

 

 Keegan shoveling the remainder of the dirt out of the paths that I had just hoe'd (is that a verb?) loose. All of the mulch and a lot of the dirt from the beds get scratched into the paths during the winter by interloping chickens looking for overwintering bugs.

 "You better not be taking a picture of me to put on your blog!"... ummm. No? Maybe? I was dead at the time!

Lots of weed eating, hoeing, shoveling, 12 gorilla carts of compost, countless armfuls of hay, and a gazillion ant bites later we have 2 completed and 2 partially completed garden rows. The two in the middle are going to be tomato rows. The trellis in the row to the right needs to be moved over and another one added. The old tomato row will host peppers this year. Still more work to get done in the next few days but this is definitely a good dent in it.

 Preparing the garden instills a strange kind of exhilaration and joy in my heart because I know it is truly that time of year again. Time to garden. To see my hard work and effort in physical form. To nurture and grow plants that in turn will nurture us and help us to grow. It is hard to describe and I feel a bit silly just seeing it written down. I guess you have to be one of the few that feel the same way to understand. It really is a kind of passion.