I'm Expecting!

This last Saturday my father drove 15 miles to pick me up, back tracked those 15 miles and an additional probably 15 miles so he and I could attend an estate sale.  Why he had to pick me up is a story for another day.  The estate sale was at a 6000+ square foot house, tucked down a long driveway on 140 acres with the entire back of the house overlooking a beautiful valley and one of four ponds.  The sale wasn’t all that great, but it was worth the trip to see the house and imagine the adventures the children (now adults) had to have experienced growing up there. 

On the way home we passed a house I had looked at months before finding my current house.  Same price, but this property was a townhouse/duplex.  Two bedrooms, two baths, everything on one floor and one car attached garage.  Courtyard, but no yard.  Had I bought that house, I would have moved in, painted and been done.  How boring would that have been?!? What would I do with all my free time?  I can no longer imagine my old life without to-do lists longer than the length of my arm and though its often overwhelming, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

So, whats been occupying my time of late?  A garden!  I’m expecting!  Vegetables and fruits and apparently A LOT of them!  I might have gone overboard.  Just a little! 

The season to garden approached rapidly, but I couldn’t get started as the yard needed some work first.  Just before moving in, the sewer line was replaced in the backyard resulting in a hump where I wanted to put my garden beds (and a sink hole further back in the yard).  The soil in this yard is good ole Kansas red clay and tough as nails! I thought I could till the hump level, but first I had to break and turn the soil with a shovel.  Mixed in with this tough as nails red clay soil are pieces of the old clay sewer line, rock and pieces of red brick!  It was NO fun to turn the soil with a shovel.  I had help getting the soil tilled and then raked it out as best as I could.  Its not entirely level, but it’ll work for the time being. 

 

(Hard soil turned with a shovel)

My deadline to plant the garden was May 10.  I had studied raised beds and thought I might make cinder block raised beds.  Then I found plans to make raised beds using cedar fence boards.  I couldn’t act on either as I was still working on the soil.  One day while googling garden beds I found

THIS post and the wheels began to turn. 

My gardening friends didn’t think gardening in the pools would work.  Plants needed more dirt for their roots.  Still, I was intrigued and googled Kiddie Pool Gardens.  My search lead me to Larry Hall’s Kiddie Pool Gardens.  I hesitated at first.  They’re not pretty like cedar raised beds would be, but the more I researched them, the more sense they made and the success stories were very tempting. 

 

Excuse all that brush. I took down the 10'+ lilac bush and hadn't addressed all the limbs yet. (Honestly, I still haven't!)

Stay tuned, I'm trying to get caught up!