That's Life: Dirt

Our weather went from 60* with rain and hail earlier this week, to temperatures in the 80's. So much for acclimation. It doesn't feel good. It feels hot. Sweaty, nasty hot. We decided to add three feet in depth to half of the back garden beds. It was WAY too much work to do with a shovel, so we borrowed my dad's truck and rented a tiller.

I should have video tapped it, because it was pretty hilarious. (Sorry, Adam, it was.) It was kind of like a 120lb Great Dane taking its owner for a walk. Except this thing had giant tines and could probably cut through asphalt. It did the job of breaking up the grass and mixing in the manure, though. We added about 120 square feet to the garden in total. That doesn't sound like a huge amount, but it leaves us plenty of room for both flowers and veggies.

Mom asked for lots of flowers, so I planted some today. The area around the bean teepee got a purple verbena, a yellow flowered tarragon, some pineapple sage that grows bright red flowers, pink fuchsias, a purple sage, and some white allysum. Tomorrow I'll plant another watermelon, a spaghetti squash, and some other veggies. I'm tempted to clone some of the heirloom paste tomatoes that I have to plant when the determinate varieties call it quits.

Here are some pictures from today...

Adam sweating away...

Volunteer watermelon...at least I'm pretty sure it is a watermelon.

Here's some poop, there's some poop, everywhere there's poop poop POOP!

My three sisters garden got overtaken by evil Bermuda grass. That's my next task...

The summer squash is actually doing pretty well. We've had a few meals with zukes already.

One of the raised beds that was replanted with bell peppers and tomatoes. That's my stash for the bean teepee scattered about.

One very pissed off chicken. They squawked in protest while Adam tilled.

Did I mention I HATE powdery mildew? I've been having to spray weekly and it keeps coming back. Thank goodness the rain should be good and done for a few months.