The Garden....!

Now to the GARDEN post. ( I will try to leave out language that could be offensive.... ! )

Last year we decided to get our always talked (me dreamed) about garden going, and make it a reality. In the back corner of our yard we have a perfect, little spot. First we had to get rid of the sod. So the shovel is sought and Farmer Aaron goes to make his first slice into the grass and just like that he hits a cement wall.... yep, the sod had been laid over CEMENT! So after much heartache and anger from me......this garden just got a lot more complicated with a lot more work! Second, we pressed forward with faith a little anger but more diligence, and we removed all the grass unveiling not lovely garden dirt but a nice cement pad to park the small RV we don't have! Third we drove done to Action Rental and rented us a jack hammer....yes a jack hammer for my vegetable garden. And Farmer Aaron got his first experience of running this intense piece of machinery.....that shakes profusely! Fourth, this was the longest, exhausting, most annoying part....breaking apart all the cement/rock, lifting all the cement, removing all the cement, stacking all the cement....you get the picture! Not to get a head, but all this cement produced zillions of rocks. Which is why we still have Abby out picking rocks out of the garden. Fifth, we then had to get rid of all this cement/rock. So on garbage night we would top off our garbage can. The neighbors were even nice enough to let us top off their cans! We were over our heads in rock and crap from the garden so we also filled up the back of a truck and hauled it to the dump....over 1 ton of rock etc.!!!!!  By the time all this work was accomplished Farmer Aaron and his wife had missed planting season.... no crops for a season. 

During the fall we did get this Garden ready for the next season by distributing our raked up leaves into garden, hoping to bring fertilization and nutrition to the rocky dirt!

Now we are in 2012, and our garden is on its way to being great! We have added soil, rototilled it with Farmer Aaron's shovel, and it is looking much better. Oh the difference a year makes! I lost track of all the steps it took to get us this far..... we claim our garden story would make a great talk in church....I'm sure it covers many principles..... 

Here are just a few pictures taken in May and June 2011.....doesn't quite give the whole experience justice, but does give an idea.

How the garden is looking now - June 2012

What a sigh of relief.....