Keeping in mind my garden mentor Ted’s greatest advice, Mitch and I added lots of homegrown and store bought compost and garden soil to vegetable garden #1 this weekend. There is nothing like dumping over that garbage bin and adding the rich black homegrown compost that was, only a short time ago, the waste from my kitchen. To think that the vegetable peels, fruit rinds and morning coffee grinds have mixed with leaves to become the food that will help nurture the herbs and vegetables we will eat this fall and winter, is definitely an awesomely “organic” feeling. While there is much planting ahead, I couldn’t resist starting the garden with some fresh herbs and several different types of tomato plants. If I learned one thing from last year’s virgin garden, it’s that tomatoes not only do well in our yard, but are extremely easy to grow and we love eating them. My goal is to have enough to share, this year.
Since I devoted Saturday afternoon to this project, I also spent time starting the new compost bin. A second goal of mine is to put more kitchen discards into the compost and less into the garbage disposal or garbage pail. I have taken back out the Gardening Bible that Ted and Dolores sent me, and am “digging deeper” into it to learn more.
When Saturday was all said and done, the hour and a half I spent at the gym in the morning didn’t compare with the workout that gardening provided that afternoon. Carrying and pouring out bags and bins of soil, pulling weeds, planting seeds and plants, watering, working on the compost and cleaning up from everything was an awesome workout for the body and of course for the soul, as well.
Thanks to Mitch, without who’s help it would have been all I could do to just get those bags of soil home from the Depot! We have a few more weekends of planting ahead of us including getting that second garden built up, planting various types of lettuce, finding the rest of the herbs I like to have at my finger tips when cooking and deciding what new veggies to try this season.
As I think about saying goodbye to my very favorite time of year, I am looking forward to watching my garden grow.
Maybe the Dolphins will grow as well. Gotta have hope!
Related articles
- Definition: Composting (casasugar.com)
- Beginners Garden 101 – My First Garden (survivalfarm.wordpress.com)
