The Neighborhood Hoe-er

We have recently moved. We ventured out of the safety of our hospital house to a slightly larger house north of the hospital. It was hard moving. Really because my commute to work living across the street required me waking up about 30 minutes before I had to be at work. That gave me ample time to shower, dress, fix breakfast, check email and skype with family back home. That left me with about 1 minute to walk across the street and into the hospital. Ahhh, I'm going to miss those days! Now I am a full 8 minutes from work. It takes 10 in traffic! What am I going to do?!

I do really love our house, especially the little garden patch they have in the backyard. For some silly reason, I thought that my time in New Zealand was going to confer me with the new ability to grow food. I don't know why I think that I can grow vegetables. I have killed almost every plant anyone has ever given me. I cant remember to do anything to it. However, I figured that growing my own garden would give me the opportunity to have fresh produce all year long plus the satisfaction of knowing that I grew what we are eating! Like the nerd I am, I did do a lot of reading and research on planting and vegetable gardens. I bought my first garden gloves (pink, of course) and my first garden tools. That was a fun conversation. I went to our local garden store and was wandering around, trying to figure out what kind of tools I needed when a nice man came over to help. Too bad I had a case of the kindergarten giggles when he talked to me. I'm so immature, but it was funny.

Man: Eye there, miss. Can eye help ya?
Me: Yes, I'm starting my garden and I need tools. This is my first garden and I'm a bit lost
Man: Ya gonna need a  heevy shovel , a trowel and a good hoe, a composting bin, a.....
Me (suppressing a smile, being silly): A what? What did you say about a hoe?
Man: A good hoe. You need a good hoe to keep your lines right.
Me (really being a 5th grader now): Where are your good hoes at?

By this point, I had started giggling and grinning and he politely pointed me in the direction of a few good hoes. I'm sure I did not impress him with my maturity. When I finally got it together and stopped acting like I was 12, I was able to collect all of my new garden stuff and head off home.

When I arrived, I got all my tools, put on my new, fresh and clean pink gloves and stood staring at the garden. It was a mess.

Where do I start?!

BEFORE PICTURE

A jungle of 2 and 3 foot high weeds, dandelions and unidentifiable vegetables that had been left by the last tenets. I then realized that I had no idea what certain vegetables looked like growing. I started in a corner, hacking down the weeds and digging out the roots when I turned over a big, round object. It was a potato! My first vegetable I harvested! Unfortunately, it wasn't quite ripe or done or ready or whatever you say. I had just killed an innocent potato by unearthing it prematurely. I didn' even know that potatoes could sprout big, two foot green stalks! I tried to be more careful but the weeds were so thick that there was no way I could just "go around" and pick out the veggies that had been growing wild.

My first harvest!

Carrots I mistakenly dug up prematurely.

By this point I was getting tired, and frustrated. I had been meticulously working, jamming the shovel into the earth, cutting out large sod pads, shaking off the topsoil and throwing the weed and root parts into a pile. My back was hurting, the sun was hot and I was pouring sweat. This was the hardest yard work I'd ever done and I wasn't even 1/4 the way through the garden! I made some amazing finds though. I found a couple of carrots, a handful of carrots and some earthworms the size of my finger! The earth was so dark and perfectly moist it seemed like I could throw a nail down and it would grow. I broke my back for 5 hours, weeding, cutting sod and turning over the soil when I found the best thing EVER! I worked for an entire hour, just trying to save this beautiful veggie I found. I cleaned away all the weeds and even sprinkled a little compost onto the base. I'm not 100% but it looks like a Turnip Green! Looks like I'm going to have my greens after all!!! Whoo hoo! I also found some giant celery which I was able to save and some carrots.

The best surprise EVER! A turnip/mustard/collard? GREEN!

Definitely going into a pot soon!

Some giant celery I managed to save

It took me 2 days and over 10 hours but I finally dug up, weeded and turned over all the soil in our garden. I even bought some sheep poop to mix into the soil. I'm now planning on planting my own veggies! I have seeds for green beans, bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, onions and lettuce. I also have herbs to plant like mint, thyme, basil, parsley, coriander and sage. I truly hope that my black thumb doesn't sabotage my garden.

AFTER the great Dig. Notice my 3 foot pile of sod and weeds in the back?!

Supposedly, all my stuff will be ready to harvest around Christmas time which is the start of the summer season. Hopefully, I'll have some awesome pics to show you!