The Rototiller Arrived

Photoguy put in our yard 6 years ago. When he planted grass, he sectioned off a huge area of about 14 feet x 20 feet for a garden. I say huge, because, having never planted a successful garden, I feel more comfortable trying out a 4 x 4 foot area to start out.

I am a huge fan of homegrown veggies and I've been the grateful recipient of friends', neighbors' and my mom and dad-in-law's harvests over the years. I also regularly shop at the farmer's market to stock up on organic goodness. However, I have yet to achieve my dream of growing my own garden.

After talking to every friend I knew who had a garden and getting advice, the first year, I planted a garden that yielded not even one squash. After more discussions, I came to the conclusion that I had not watered enough when the seeds were germinating. So, the second year, I watered right down to the textbook science of watering. Still, all I got were a few sugar snap peas and some deformed carrots. I decided that I needed to fertilize. When I discussed this with friends and my father-in-law, they were like, "well, yeah, of course your should be fertilizing." As if they were talking to someone who was unsuccessful in making toast because they hadn't plugged in the toaster -- duh -- fertilize!

I knew I needed to fertilize, but, I didn't have a truck to go get a load. The third year, I planned to plant a garden, but, as the spring turned to summer and my pregnant belly grew increasingly larger (I was due with my third child in August), I gave up on planting a garden at all that year. The fourth year, we were in the process of moving to China -- hence, no garden again. And, the fifth year, we were in the process of moving back into our home, which ended up taking us from May until the end of July due to health problems I had that summer. Again, no garden.

Finally, this year, the sixth year, I entered spring, again gung-ho to plant a garden. Once again came the dilemma of getting a good load of fertilizer dumped on the ground when, wallah, our neighbor knocks on our door and asks if we want half a truckload of his dark brown gardening soil because he has too much. Well, Yes!

I also received $80 worth of gift certificates to a local nursery and Home Depot for my birthday. So, the question was, how could we not plant a garden this year?

At the beginning of spring, Photoguy cleared out the huge wild blackberry bush that overtakes the garden area every year. Then, he busted up a big cement slab on one side of the garden, and it looked like things were really taking off. Then . . . well, life happened, we got busy and not one other thing happened to the garden for awhile.

Partway through June, I started to get really antsy about planting the garden. I went out and pulled up all the weeds. Then, I surveyed the ground and got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. The space was just too massive. I knew I wouldn't weed that big of an area all summer long. It overwhelmed me and made me want to quit.

Instead, I grabbed a long PVC pipe and laid it down the middle of the garden. There! A 7 x 20 foot piece of ground seemed much more bearable. I grabbed my rake and started to spread the good soil over 1/2 of the garden area. Then, I loaded up the kids and headed down to Home Depot to buy some plants.

I entered the garden section and found myself overcome with dread again. There were so many choices! So many kinds of fences and fertilizers and plants and everything! Where to begin? I pushed back the feeling to flee from the store and throw sod over the garden area so it would never bother me again. Instead, I swallowed my pride and showed my complete gardening ignorance by asking the workers all kinds of layman questions. Then, came the problem. The nice saleslady said, "Well, you can't just rake the soil over the top of your garden, you're going to have to rototill it in."

What!? I mean, I figured it would be a good idea to rototill. But, honestly. Now, I would have to come up with a rototiller and actually coordinate a free time with the ever busy Photoguy. Long story short, it is now two weeks later and the rototiller has arrived! (thank you for the rototiller dad). My fabulous husband is out there on this already sweaty day (ummm . . . is it a problem to plant a garden when it's going to be 100-degrees every day?) working like a madman to till up the garden for me.

Just for good measure, I spread manure over it too. I mean, since we are tilling it anyways, I wanted to take maximum advantage of the situation. He's not pleased that I am only planting half of the garden, but, I've talked him into letting me do it that way. I explained how much I want it to be a success and how much I really don't know what I'm doing and how overwhelming the whole thing is. Just now, the idea came to me that since we are putting all the good stuff on only one half of the garden this year, I can start a compost pile on the other side to get the soil ready for next year. Composting tips anyone?