Well, my husband had a day off yesterday! I use the term, 'off' loosely as it really means that he didn't have to go in for his regular job, but 'off'..... well, not really. I don't know that that term can ever really be used by a family that farms. You see yesterday we did a little of this, added a lot of 'that' and a dash of rain and this is what took place.
You see, we worked on getting our vegetable patch up and running. For those of you that know me well, or have been keeping up on our blog here, you'll know that I have confessed to being somewhat of a vegetable garden enviest (if that is even a word!). This year has found my husband and I venturing into the unknown and unchartered waters of gardening. Believe me, in fact, ask my house plants if you don't believe me, but I am not known for my green thumb. However, we decided this was the year to begin, and well, even though all the gardening books say, 'start small', that isn't really in our vocabulary. So, having bought a wide variety of vegetable seeds, we found ourselves hurriedly trying to beat the ever decreasing time that we have here in WNY to get your veggies in to give them any possible chance of producing. We have quite a short growing season in here in Western New York and the rule of thumb is that Memorial Day weekend is the time by which your garden should be planted. Well, as you can see we are slightly behind here, but better late than never. Believe me when I say, you really can't rush gardening, or at least preparing the ground to garden. There is no quick way to move 20 wheel barrow loads of heavy, oh did I mention, heavy ... manure. So with a little bit of help, a lot of manure and a dash of rain, we finally got our corn, some more beans, and squash planted. This is what we started with
Several wheel barrow loads of manure, a lot of hard work and a chiropractor appointment later, this is the half way transformation, with my husband, working hard on his day off!
This is the finished product, a corn, squash, and bean section has been added to our ever growing vegetable garden.
We also decided, yesterday, that it was time to remove the pop bottles from the garden. I was like a mother hen pacing backwards and forwards, brow furrowed, trying to decide if this really was a good idea. You see, these precious little seeds have fought their way through the soil, grown into little seedlings all whilst being protected under the pop bottles we so nicely provided for them, and safe from harmful bugs, hungry rabbits and a multitude of other dangers. I've awaited their arrival, expectantly watched for any little sign of growth, been overjoyed to see my black thumb possibly, just possibly, begin to show signs of greening. Then, all of a sudden, there they are, bottle protection gone, out in the elements, trying to inconspicuously blend in with their surroundings so as not to attract the attention of hungry rabbits passing by. I haven't yet ventured out there this morning. I'm trying to build myself up to it, just in case the community rabbit population has all decided to converge on our garden!
So, the journey continues, from an overgrown area to a growing garden. Here's to hoping my slowly greening thumb shines brightly like a beacon in the night by the end of this season. I invite you to join us as we walk along on this journey. Traveling with us through the ups (that I'm very hopeful there will be) and the downs that I unfortunately and realistically know will come.
From pop bottle to flourishing garden.... I can see it now! Also, just an FYI while we were working in the garden getting overwhelmed by pesky bugs, we tried out our new Lemongrass & Rosemary lotion. It worked like a charm - no more pesky bugs! Check it out at our shop here on the webpage.
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