Tilling Your Plot

     Without the candy coating: gardening is a shitload of work.  I mean, really.  This stuff's not for sissies.  You think your old gardening gran is so meek and fragile, but she's a badass.  There's so much physical labor involved that, according to my diet tracker, gardening burns almost 300 calories an hour.  Shoveling and heaving and pulling--somehow even my hamstrings were sore after last weekend's endeavors?

     Allow me to set the scene for you.  The entire area of the garden was overgrown with chest-high weeds.  Abby Hoffman could've hidden in there.  Step one: bring out the weed-whacker.  And don't forget to use the strongest plastic ties you can find.

     Upon felling the forestry and examining its floor, we realized we had to dig up all the roots and top level grass that the weed whacker couldn't tackle.  Step two: grab a shovel.  Or two.  And volunteers, if you can.

     After two hours of over-turning soil, shovelful by shovelful, we re-examined and realized we needed something that required less effort and could produce maximal results.  Preferably something motorized.  Step three: Call Home Depot and rent a rototiller.  I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough.  It took us two hours to dig up one tenth of the garden.  It took us half as much to till the entire plot after acquiring our rental.

    Step four: call your dad.  When I called mine, old My-Guy informed me, to my dismay, that we have to pick out all the roots we dug up.   Step four is still in-process.  The most we've managed to do is rake out the stuff on top of the soil.  Re-implement step two.  If you don't, you're putting your plants/seeds into a terror zone.  Any leftover roots or weeds will strangle and kill anything you attempt to grow.

     I'll be keeping you posted.

I have no idea how large in numerical area our plot is, but it's approximately 12 hours+hand blisters+sore muscles big.

The depth perception in this photo doesn't do it justice, but there were two HUGE weed systems--like, larger than basketballs--rooted here.  It took us an hour to dig each out.

We also spent time mulching around the trees in our yard.

This is our plan for 2012 plant & harvest.  Because we both grew up on this staple, we're going to be planting raspberry bushes as well.

I refer to this little joy as my "cheater garden."  It's called an Aerogarden and requires almost zero effort beyond refilling the water trough, adding nutrient packets, and minimal pruning.  Here we have monstrous cilantro and basil plants, and a growing assortment of thyme, oregano, and parsley.

    

Can anyone (mom?) identify this flower bush?  It just started blooming like crazy once we got all the warm weather two weeks ago.

It also attracts tens of bees, which provide a soothing hum in our backyard.