5/22/13

Recycling poo and planting seeds



Despite working long days in a much bigger tractor putting seeds into fields, my hubby made time to prepare my garden for seeding.  I'm so thankful for that because my garden is getting in a few weeks later than usual..and time was running out. We had such a late winter here.  

He brought over a truck load of manure from the farm yard, which up until several years ago, always housed a lot of cattle.  The cattle are long gone, but their poopy bedding was left behind.  Lucky for me, the straw and manure has now decomposed into a beautiful dirt filled with lovely organic matter, without even a hint of manure smell.  I plant my garden quite aggressively  using up every square inch of space and our natural soil isn't very good.  Last year the dirt was like cement, it was so hard I couldn't even dig the carrots..it was also very nutrient depleted and nothing grew very well.  I knew that this year the soil needed some TLP if it was expected to grow anything.




Elijah was delighted to be my "helper" this year.


He did a great job of planting Popsicle sticks.


He also discovered the water hose.





The rest of the kids were off raiding the kitchen or making mischief somewhere else.  My helper and I got most of the garden planted but we didn't finish the task until after I bought some more seed packets a couple days later. 


Gardening day number two included many more "helpers"





As sweet as it appears to have five kids planting a garden, I can assure you that it is not. 
Slightly controlled chaos that included a lot of dirt, water, and seed packets being spilled. All I know is that there are seeds in that dirt.  Beyond that, it's going to be one big surprise. 


Elijah wasn't so happy the second time around.  Mostly because the other kids, and mom, kept using his garden hose (which now has a fancy spray gun on the end that is fun to soak people with)


Eventually I packed the kids indoors, washed muddy hands and feet, changed muddy clothes, served a snack and put on a movie.   Then I returned to my quiet garden to finish the job.  Oh the serenity of gardening alone.  

I reminded myself that it's good for them to dig in dirt, and poke kernels of corn into the ground, and to know where their food comes from.   I also reminded myself that I like gardening alone. 

I'm already looking forward to seeing my little plants pushing up through the soil, and producing a yummy summer harvest of crunchy goodness.  





1 comment:

Matt and Maria said...

I love the helpers! They make us sow and harvest the eternal things...

My last blog post was about my garden helpers, who planted all the seeds before I arrived at the garden to help.... :)