My Latest Obsession

If you ask my kids or Stevie, they would all verify that I have a tendency to get an idea in my brain and then harp on it until I have mastered it/done it.  By now they know better than to question my motives and have definitely learned that their help will be required no if's, and's or but's!  So have I mentioned what my latest obsession is?  Gardening.

Yes, last fall I took a look at what we affectionately call the "lower 40" (the name is a long story and comes from my childhood...) and decided it would be an excellent place for a garden.  Last fall it was nothing more than a wasteland of chopped off weeds and wild animal dung and I thought it was just begging to be turned into something.  So last fall I started building up a bed via the gardening style called "lasagna gardening".  No, you don't grow only vegetables used in lasagna, but put layer after layer of compostable materials down to build up a super rich soil and by doing so eliminate the need for any digging. (No digging = less work *in theory*)

You're supposed to layer grass clippings, leaves, yard waste, etc. but since I decided to do this after grass mowing season and since we don't have any deciduous trees in our yard, I encountered my first challenge.  Never fear!  I "convinced" my neighbor across the street to let Emmy and I rake her leaves so I could use them.  And then I hand gestured my idea to the Guatemalan landscaping team at another neighbor's house and they brought me several wheelbarrows full of clippings.  And then I raided my other neighbor's compost pile (with his permission) and soon had a fairly full bed.

So there it has sat all winter doing its thing (hopefully).  In the meantime, I've been brainstorming, dreaming, sketching, reading, talking, and denying any practical advice in preparation for the planting season.  You see, if only it were as easy as thinking out what we wanted to plant.  No, life is never that simple.  That, it turns out, is the easy part of gardening.  The hard part was designing a way to keep out pests.  Did you read that part about me "denying any practical advice"?  Well, that practical advice, given to me by everyone I talked to, said that the deer will eat everything.  And if the deer don't get it, then the rabbits will.  And if the deer and the rabbits don't get it, then the slugs will. And if the deer, rabbits, and slugs don't get it, then it will mildew from too much rain and not enough warmth and sunshine. Humph.  This gardening thing was supposed to be fun.  A way to enjoy fresh air and sunshine.  A way to save money on food.

If I were logical and reasonable, I probably should have heeded all the advice I heard and just bought vegetables at the local farmer's market and be done with it.  But unfortunately, I'm more obstinate than logical and reasonable (I'm sure Stevie is grinning with pleasure at my admission of this).  So I plowed on (get the pun? ha, ha)

I dragged Stevie and the kids to Home Depot, Lowes and the Farm Store more times than they wanted to count and visited a few times on my own.  I sketched and resketched and dreamed up more plans than I wanted to count.  And then did it all over again.  Finally, we decided to put up a hog wire fence around the pre-established garden bed and make a lid to go on top out of chicken wire and 1x3's.  It sounded like a good plan, but then it didn't work. So we ended up with a hog wire fence and a giant "lid" sitting over to the side waiting to be "repurposed".  The posts Stevie set for the gate are still waiting for the concrete to set (that was 5 days ago).

The bed is built up with wooden slats around it so I'm hoping this will be bunny-proof, if not I guess I'll add a layer of chicken wire (or "poultry fencing" as the new PC term is).  As for the slugs?  I'm going to throw them a beer bash when the plants get rolling.  At least that's the plan for now.