Vegetables and Berries and Flowers and More!

That's what I want in this new garden I'm starting! :-)

But if you know me, you know that all of that is waaaay too ambitious! ;-)

I'm *trying* to stay rooted in reality, but my hopes and dreams keep pushing my imagination forward...

Anyway, yesterday driving around on my bus route, I noticed bags of leaves at the street in front of one house. That got me thinking about the garden. So between routes, I stopped and picked up two bags and came home and started working on the new garden.

Let me back up...

Last Fall (October, I think), I paced off an area in the back yard and I laid down a heavy plastic tarp. I secured it with tent stakes and some large rocks. All this because I refused to kill the grass with harmful chemicals! Boyfriend thinks I'm slightly nutty, and he may be right, but I just don't want to go the chemical route. He pointed out that it would be way faster and much less trouble.

Blah, blah, blah. Whatever.

You know which one I did. :-)

Here's a picture of the 16' x 8' section that I put the tarp on:

The stuff on top is just a bit of fencing Boyfriend took down shortly after the tarp was placed, and he didn't know what else to do with it.

Well, yesterday, it was *sooo* gorgeous (weather-wise) that I decided to take up the tarp and start to prep the earth. I laid the fencing stuff up against Boyfriend's shop 'cause I didn't really know what else to do with it. :-P

(I may leave it there forever.)

Here's the strip with the tarp taken off, and note the fencing up against the shop:

(Also note my lovely assistant.) :-)

I couldn't believe how bad it smelled under that tarp! It was worse than musty!

Anyway, here are the bags of mostly pin oak leaves.

(Again, my lovely assistant.) :-)

Okay, these next couple of pictures may not be too good. I just hope my explanations help. lol

A long while back, I read about this technique for turning the dirt. It went something like this:

Dig a hole that's about 12 inches square. Put that dirt aside.

Dig a hole directly beside the first hole that's also 12 inches square, putting that dirt in the first hole.

Repeat, putting the dirt from the hole into the hole you just previously dug, until you get to the last hole. Then take the dirt from the very first hole and put it into the very last hole. This way, you have turned all of the dirt without requiring a wheelbarrow or tarp to lug around a bunch of dirt.

So that's what I started doing, since I do *not* have a tiller.

Here's the first hole:

Before I put the dirt from the next hole into the first hole, I added the leaves:

Then I put dirt from hole #2 into hole #1:

Then prepared hole #3, put that dirt into hole #2:

And etcetera... Until I had two columns done!

Pitiful "farmer" that I am (not), this took me almost an hour!

Then I had to go take a shower and wash my hair in preparation for the evening bus run.

I didn't have the time nor inclination to get back out there today.

...maybe tomorrow...?

But I did go to the grocery store and picked up a few things, so I'm not totally useless today! :-)