I decided I should document the process, because each time I visit the garden I learn something new and I know I will have forgotten it by next year so I better write it down.
Mid April we finally got around to planting the peas. Apparently these are suppose to be done at the beginning of April, but even though we are late they are growing fast (it seems to me). A few days before hand we tilled the ground (Tyler and Kathleen's Dad that is). It was a hot day and I was exhausted just watching them. At the same time as the peas we had Alex, Heidi and Archie help plant the potatoes and should get 6 rows of reds to harvest in the fall. The Giant Sunflower plants we did last year dropped plenty of seeds and we have had HUNDREDS of free growing sunflower plants pop up all over the garden! We transplanted a dozen of them into a row and it almost kills me each time I have to pull up another sprout like it's a weed. We also planted kale, lettuce and spinach that day.
Every week I go out to irrigate the garden. I walk through the rows in my bare feet with my pants rolled up to my knees, a sunhat I would be too self conscious to wear anywhere else, sitting on my head and a shovel in hand. The first time I completely flooded the whole thing, the water was coming too fast and our rows were pathetic and too shallow, it was a mess.
Last week I went and spent a few hours weeding the garden. Not much was peeking up yet and so I sat and chatted and felt successful as I plucked every visible weed in that lot. A week later I returned to find that for every one I had picked, 30 had sprung up to replace it. At that moment I learned that the water doesn't just feed the plants you want to grow, it feeds the weeds twice as well. I also learned that gardening is exhausting work.
Today we put in 20 more rows! Kathleen's brother came to push the antique looking row maker and we blistered our hands with the rakes piling up the dirt and making the ditches deeper. Today my lesson was that buying gardening gloves from the dollar section of Target gets you gardening gloves that are worth about a dollar. They are already falling apart and the flaps of skin hanging from the popped blisters on my hands wish I had sprung for a $5 pair at a legitimate gardening store.
We planted tomatoes, broccoli, corn and strawberry corn today! With the whole garden rowed out and some of our earlier plants starting to grow it is finally looking like a garden. Unfortunately the enormous job that weed control will be is finally apparent. I think it may be dwarfed by the even more gigantic job of keeping the kids from walking on our little seedlings, as that seems to be the only part of the garden they wish to tread. There is a fine line between happily involving your children so they will learn to work, and keeping them from destroying the garden. We found that we also have some rogue potato plants from last year and it gives me heart that there are things other than just weeds which will grow without our constant nurture and care. I wonder what the garden would look like by the fall if we left it to it's own devices?
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