Thank God the weekend's over

I've been waiting for the perfect weekend to plant my little vegetable garden, and this was finally it! We've literally still had frost warnings up through last week, and we might again this week, but the plants are in for better or worse.

This is what the area looked like in March.


This is what it looked like Saturday morning.



Son of a bitch, Douchey was right about the poison ivy. It wasn't in the spot he thought it was in, but it was coming out from behind the shed and that and something similar to bittersweet were choking the lilac bushes.

I worked much of the day Saturday clearing that crap and starting to turn the soil and get rid of the grass and weeds in the space itself. I gave up when my back couldn't take anymore, but got right back out there Sunday morning. I finished removing the crap, turned the soil, and added about 125 pounds of compost/peat moss/cow poop.

I could hear the thunder for over an hour before the storm actually hit. It was a weird storm, it moved almost all the way around us without actually hitting. The sky was black and we could see lighting all around us, but then it seemed to move off, so I started planting. And had to stop.




This is what the final product looks like. I don't know how people do this by hand with bigger gardens. My back doesn't hurt so much today, but quite a few of my unused muscles are protesting, and my hands are swollen to twice their normal size (damn carpal tunnel). I put a lot into a small space.


There are tomato plants, beans, burpless cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, eggplant, zuccinni, summer squash and carrots. I also have lettuce growing in a box on the porch, and a small herb garden with dill, cilantro, chives, basil, oregano and parsley.

The hard part is over, although I still have to make and put up trellisses. I can't wait to make eggplant parm with my own fresh sauce, rattatoulie straight from my garden, and my own pickles! My mother shared her recipe with me a couple of years ago that came from her father's Jewish side of the family from Russia. They are awesome!

On a weird note, Douchey came over and patted me on the back when I was done yesterday. He told me I had done and good job and he was proud of me. I don't know why he was proud of me, but I'll take it.