PROGRESS IN THE GARDEN

 I am not cut out to be a farm hand! LOL 

The weather forecast contained showers this evening and all tomorrow. Wednesday is supposed to clear up and then rain again Thursday and Friday. We NEED this rain...but I NEED to have the ground ready for the potatoes, pumpkins, beans...AND the job was far more than I could handle alone. 

What a mess....

The above photo was taken standing about 1/3 of the way into the garden space - at the end of the squash patch. I told Michael it felt more like a micro-farm than a garden.  I suggested we could simply move the fence to the side of the garden house and the rest could be yard for someone else to maintain. Michael had more vision than I. Most of this space has tarps, black plastic or carpet over it...so...today's goal was to clear all the debris and storm damage from the garden space, remove tarps, plastic and carpets, weed whack it to a manageable length and then rototill it. I do NOT want to rototill it, but we want to get it planted and don't have the time and money to build a bunch of beds, lay cardboard and build up the beds. We've had it covered for two years. 

I got started early and worked an hour alone. Stacia came out and helped me move the things hidden in the grass - tires, garage door panels (to make more beds), twisted row covers... she couldn't get the weed eater started. 

Repurposing these to be cages around Aspen trees

Michael came out and the girls joined us while Nolan studied and stayed with Grandpa...all total Stacia worked 1 1/2 hours, Allie worked 1 hour, Michael worked 5 hours and I put in 6 hours....that's a total of  13 1/2 man hours. 

Removing tarps

This is would be a pretty little meadow right outside the garden if it weren't for devil's clubs. One of our goals is to get the devil's club pushed back and make this space useable. I would like to mow it down, if we can get the riding mower back there, and throw wild flowers everywhere. LOL 

Master of the Weed Eater

 

Grass had grown up through the carpets...The girls and I weren't up to the chore. Michael was. 

This is the back side of the carpet....

And the front side of the carpet - BTW the carpets are from BreZaak and CoRielle's home...both renovated before moving into their home. It served it's purpose in the garden.  It kept the weeds in check while we worked on other projects. 

The truck was quite useful today

We have had a huge tree in this part of the garden. I used plant snap and it gave me three different names...not sure what it is...but it got BIG....Michael cut all the branches back and plans to remove the stump. We found two more stumps in the space and he got one out with the crowbar. 

The good news is the soil which was covered won't need to be tilled. It looks like great soil. 

I think this is the biggest stump we need to remove...and there is more carpet to remove. The girls called us in for dinner and then the rain arrived. We'll get it done.

We got quite a lot done....

The end of the day came when the thunder began...

We were ready for showers and baths...and a night of rain and thunder. LOL While I could barely move this evening, took 2 naproxen and sat with 2 ice packs while Michael showered, I do like the sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. The work was hard, not very fun at all, but it was wonderful to be outside all day...and it was great to spend the day working on a project with Michael. We passed on respite this week so we could work on this project.  I think it was a good decision.