Well, the garden has been started, and no thanks at all to me.
Because of debilitating but hopefully temporary back pain, there was no way I was going to be hoeing, raking, and planting seeds yesterday. Luckily, I have three willing helpers.
Jack would have helped, but he was napping. Just as well, as the help of a two-year-old is negligible at best and destructive at worst.
A. was willing mostly because he would be happy if I never again announced that I needed to drive to the Big Village for perishable food. Or, as he so eloquently put it, "I'll do it if I never have to hear about you driving 50 miles for five calories worth of leaves."
The man does have a way with words.
Whatever the reason, he did all the work, with Cubby and Charlie's enthusiastic if inexpert assistance. I sat in a plastic chair outside the garden and managed the operations.
In the end, the work itself was laughably easy. Accustomed as we are to the heavy, clay-based soil in the garden at Blackrock, which is choked by weeds even at this early stage of the season, prepping the light, sandy, and almost weed-free soil here seemed like a game instead of a chore.
At least, that's what A. tells me. I didn't actually wield the rake myself, but it sure looked a lot easier. He didn't even use a shovel to turn the soil over. Before I knew it, there were several rows planted to carrots, radishes, lettuce, arugula, snap peas, shelling peas, and "a lot of that gross-ass kohlrabi."
That was A.'s comment anyway. He just doesn't have the soul of a true vegetable gardener. Probably because he would always rather eat a lamb than a vegetable.
Lucky for him, I happened to have a large quantity of lamb already cooking for dinner that night (hooray for after-Easter sales!), so he was suitably rewarded for his labors.
And I will be rewarded for my excellent labor management skills by many pounds of fresh vegetables right outside my door in just a few weeks. Yay.
3 comments:
Didn't you have about 14 feet of snow in pictures just a week ago? Where ever did it all go?
Yea! I haven't planted seeds yet, even here in Wisconsin. Wait, I take that back. I'm starting seedlings indoors. One of the contractors putting in new windows came over and examined the seedlings, asking me questions like "Orange tomatoes?" Our temps have been up and down enough that I won't dare move these outside until mid to late May, at least. But maybe zucchini...
Oh dear. Sorry to hear about the back pain. I know you'd have been one with the dirt had you not had an excuse.
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