growing roots

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

And again.

And again.

This would have to be the best motto to describe me and my attempts at growing gardens.

2008 - I started a lovely container garden on our porch. Over crowding and massive rainfalls while we were vacationing in Alaska pretty much deemed my crop a failure.

2009 - Motivation struck again and I single handedly built three raised beds. The next day I tore down two of them just knowing I wouldn't be able to find enough black dirt to fill all three. The one I did fill was {again} subjected to overcrowding (probably a similar situation to the overcrowded prisons in California - muwhahaha) and it became a huge mess that wasn't even worth my time.

2010 - The weeds in the raised bed grew like crazy. The neighbor lady loved me. I did not share any of the actual weed that popped up. {Oh wait - that happened the year we moved into our house...}

2011 - Motivated big time to grow my own food.

This year it is going to be different, I can just feel it. I am in a place where I want to grow my own food - food that I know wasn't treated with a ton of chemicals. Food that is hopefully packed with more nutrients than the stuff you find at the grocery store. Food that tastes good.

This year - it WILL be different.

This year - I WILL succeed.

Crap - that means I might actually have to spend some time in my garden weeding.

This year - it WILL hopefully be different.

This year - I WILL try really hard to succeed.

The process so far has been a lot slower than I was hoping for. A few weeks ago we finally found someone in town that was willing to till up a patch of yard for us for a measly $20.



And then it rained.

And rained.

And rained.

A few weeks after the garden was tilled, I finally made my way out to a local Amish nursery to buy some vegetables. The husband tagged along and we promised ourselves we would not get carried away.

We did - just a little.

And then guess what happened?

It rained.

And rained.

And rained.

This past Friday I was dead set to have a garden planted by the end of the weekend. I headed back over to the Amish nursery to pick up some compost knowing, just knowing, that I was going to get it raked into my lovely tilled garden.

Holy heck. It had rained so much that the soil was so compact that we needed to till it again.  I was one motivated woman and grabbed my shovel and began tilling it by hand.







I WILL plant a garden this weekend.

Bet you can't guess what happened next....

It rained.

For two friggin' days!

Today was the first day that little to no rain was forecasted and with temps reaching into the low 90s there was no holding me back.

We borrowed a friend's tiller - despite his warnings that the ground would be very muddy, and got to work.

Nic tilled the garden once. We added mushroom compost and peat moss. And then he tilled it two more times.

After I raked it to make it look pretty, I got right to planting.


Why yes, that is my bra that you see there.

And soon after ran out of room.


Why no, I am not pregnant - that is just the dress.

Yeah - turns out we did get a little carried away at the nursery.

We debated tilling another small garden, but decided that would be overwhelming in the long run.

We nixed a few vegetables from the plan.

And then hand tilled a little patch to get in a few that we just couldn't say no to.

A few short hours later - VOILA! I have a vegetable garden!



This year - I promise to spend at least 15 minutes each day singing to, er I mean, weeding my garden and doing everything in my power to grow some vegetables.

It is going to be epic.

An epic success.

No failures allowed.

At least no failures due to a lack of trying.









Maia is going to do one of two things to my garden:

1 - scare all of the rabbits away like a good doggie.
2 - join all of the rabbits in the garden snacking on the veggies and playing in the dirt.

Let's take a vote - I bet she chooses number two....



Here's to green thumbs!