Well, there’s no turning back now.
Mike’s had the last two days off of work (slow season for excavation) and so has been busy here at the house. Yesterday he cut down a row of overgrown junipers along the driveway. They were about 30 feet tall and were going to be blocking the afternoon sun off my veggie garden. I guess we could have just topped them, but they were ugly, so now they’re becoming wood chips.
Today he borrowed a big and little track-hoe and a dump truck with driver from the yard. After using the big track-hoe to load and haul away the remains of the junipers they brought in a load of gravel for the driveway.
Then Mike used the smaller track-hoe to relocate the six small fruit trees that were right where I want my garden. They’ve now taken up residence replacing half the junipers and along the neighbor’s fence.
Finally, Mike turned over the top 12 inches or so of sod and dirt for my garden. Wow 35′x50′ looks a lot bigger in real life than it does on paper!
Next, maybe tomorrow, he’s going to roto-till it to break up the sod. Finally we’re going to bring in 3 inches of compost to mix in since it turns out to have a lot more clay in it than we expected. Pricey for that much compost, but without it I don’t think we’re going to grow much in the clay.
Oh well. It’s just a start-up cost I guess. Starting in the next couple of weeks we’ll start saving materials to get our own compost piles going so as we continue to amend the soil at least it won’t cost us anything but sweat and time.
Yay! A garden!
*****
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How exciting! And a horse too??? He would help a whole lot with the composting! Think of all that bedding and manure… It sounds like you’re enjoying country living.
Hi Laura – I just found your blog through a recommendation on my google reader. I’m so excited to have found this. I live in the burbs of Arizona but my fiance and I are dreaming of acreage for chickens, goats, a garden and who knows what else. I started a blog almost a year ago just to document my new fondness for cooking and along the way I’ve learned about eating local and sourcing sustainable and humanely raised meat. I also read The Omnivore’s Dilemma which completely changed my outlook on things. Just wanted to say hi and thanks for sharing so much of your life out here in blog land. I’ve enjoyed reading about your journey and you are an inspiration to me on mine!
Chrissy
Good luck with your garden! My fiance and I are trying container gardening this year since we live in an apartment. Eventually we would love to have fruit trees, a really garden, etc etc.
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