A Few First Steps: A Garden

Well. In the depths of this past winter - sometime when it was -20degrees out and a foot of snow covered both cars, and the pine trees were bending under slabs of ice- husband Joe decided to build a garden. Not right then of course. This summer. But because Joe likes to do things right (whereas I like to do things 'kinda right') and Joe likes to be successful (whereas I am okay with 'kinda successful') he started almost immediately. In December. With research. The computer was taken up on many nights on garden websites, the radio always tuned to 'Garden Talk- wpr' and books arrived on our doorstep from amazon about planting. Joe was into planting a garden. So of course our kids were too.

Joe started growing plants under the florescent lights in the basement and built special containers for them. Relax- I'm sure they were legal vegetables. It was broccoli. Our master bath got a space heater and the temperature was carefully monitored to grow seeds. Joe determined that the soil around our house was too sandy to grow a garden so he got a bunch of different stuff (I'd tell you but I don't know what it was except that he combined 4 different types of dirt) and made some more acceptable soil. He figured out a way to put up fencing and stuff on the ground to keep all the bunnies, deer and maybe some weeds out, and then built some boxes to grow everything. He measured different spots in our yard to calculate the sun, he drew up diagrams for planting and decided on a continuous crop cycle (or something like that). Then we just waited and waited and waited on spring. We received 6 inches of snow on May 2nd. The broccoli started wilting in the basement. But finally. Finally. Spring came.

Joe spent last weekend building the garden and I'd like to say I helped. But I didn't really. The only job Joe gave me was to measure and drill screws in a board every 12 inches. I spent twenty minutes working. Then Joe discovered that I had been drilling every 16 inches. I was kicked off the project. With happiness I decided to take pictures instead. And here they are. The kids helped until they realized that the hose could also double as a water sprinkler. But now -the garden is built. The soil is in. The broccoli is replanted. And maybe. Just maybe, in a little bit, we'll be eating home grown veggies from Joe's garden.