Weekend before last, I eloped with him.
In Kato's words...awwwww...how cute
This past weekend, we started a garden together.
Radish, scallions and kale, oh my!
To be honest, I was way more nervous about the garden because I don’t have a green thumb. Quite the opposite in fact…. I’m like the Jack Kevorkian of plant life. But he asked if I would be interested in helping with the spring planting. And what’s a newlywed to do?
He's just so cute...
Plus he totally bribed me.
The pink watering can did the trick.
Before we could even think about planting anything, we had to prepare the soil. This process took almost four hours and included digging up roots, shoveling old soil out, adding in a compost/peat moss mixture (along with many other nutrient rich substances) and mixing it all up in order to make sure our garden had a fertile foundation.
a lovely manure and compost mixture
After our soil was ready, we had to enable the partitioning that was to set the stage for our garden. I was informed that square foot gardening is “one of the geekiest ways to garden” and that thanks to my own geeky spouse, we already had a spreadsheet of where the different crops were going. ‘Twas a good thing that he knew what he was doing.
Ides of March, my ass
All the time spent working that close to the earth left me feeling more grounded than I had in a long time. No pun intended.
I realized that tending a garden is a lot like tending a relationship. There is planning, heavy lifting, uprooting, maintaining, and big piles of stuff you have to move around. It’s hard work, your hands will get dirty and without enough attention, your efforts will be for naught.
getting down and dirty
As you put seeds into the ground, you can’t but help but be overcome with a feeling of optimistic hope. By planting a seed, you are siding with the belief that there is potential in the future…that anything is possible, that life will provide and that with the right care, you can grow something to be proud of…all the same feelings I had during my wedding.
If these are the salad days, pass the homemade vinaigrette please because we’re growing three different types of lettuce. (Who knew?)
