Our Garden

On July 3rd it happened. The big question.

JM:" He guys what do you want to do today?"
Kids: " Plant a garden!!!"
Me: "OR go to the beach!"
Kids: " GARDEN!!!" with seeds in hand.
JM: "Okay but this is going to be a family thing. EVERYONE has to help."
Me :"Are you sure you want to plant a garden, wouldn't you rather go to the beach?"
Kids: "GARDEN!"
Me: errrrr

So JM got up and going, 1 big shovel, 1 little shovel, 2 kids and me. He started digging. Within 30 minutes that I lo-lagged getting by hair up and shoes on he had almost dug out 1/2 of the side yard. I was afraid. He made us begin to "sift" the dirt. The kids began to say "can we go to the beach now!" JM replied " Nope, GET TO WORK!" I thought to myself..."this has to be one of the stupidest things we have ever done!" Dirt everywhere.

JM said it would be great at the end. At this point I had no faith that it would be great. So he dug and we sifted the dirt...mind you the area where he ended up stopping was now 14 feet x 18 feet and then another foot down. This was going to take more than a day to do. Dig (with one big shovel), sift (with the dog's poopper scooper), Caleb running around with the little shovel going crazy and RRR filling buckets of dirt. For about 4 hours all it was was dig the dirt, sift the dirt, move the dirt FOR HOURS. Then JM finally said ok, let's go to Home Depot. He made a sifter. Praise the Lord, now we could SIFT the dirt. He got this idea of making a sifter from our travels to El Salvador. With some pieces of wood, nails, a hammer and a piece of thick screen he made a sifter! A sifter! It made the work a little easier but we still only had 1 big shovel. So we where able to sift and move a little less than half of the dirt needed.

That day we talked about El Salvador, how we felt like the work we where doing reminded us of being there. The kids talked about how they missed their friends there, and JM talked about the different smells that reminded him of being there. We had worked for over 8 hours and we where dirty beyond belief. It was a good day but the end was not near.

Day2, July 5th
JM and the kids dug and sifted for for about 3 hours. I finally come out after lunch and helped. It was grueling. JM had to keep reminding me of how great it was going to be. JM and I worked and worked while the kids played. RRR helped some but Caleb just ran around crazy. At about 6pm JM turned to me and said, "we need to move the dirt to the side of the house." I wanted to walk away, go take a shower and sit on the couch. Move the dirt to the side of the house....sounds pretty easy but we had no wheel barrel. And we had been working now for over 7 hours. He went to our neighbor's across the street...Thank the good Lord for Frank and Linda. They not only let us use a wheel barrel but two shovels. So for the next two hours JM and I dug and moved dirt. This should be the point where I say to you, "I turned to look at him in all the dirt and just thought how great of a husband I have." But, ya, no...I turned and looked at him and thought..."this was the stupidest thing we have done!"

Side note here: this was the day he hurt his arm. It had been hurting him since that morning.

Day3, July 7th
"I am having 4 trucks loads of soil brought to the house." Basically he was having horse crap dropped off in front of our house to shovel into the "garden!" This was also the day that our dear friend Ashley came to help shovel. Ya for help!!!! So we dug, sifted, moved dirt...then filled the big hole with good dirt then added the soil...tilled that and then added more soil. "OK kids now it is time to plant the seeds." JM said. Days later and mounds of dirt and "other stuff" later we had a garden. We happily planted the plants and seeds that we had and watered it. It was looking like a garden. SO thankful for my brother who got us a Till from his company!

Day 4, July 9th
I turned to JM who was standing at the edge of the counter posting free dirt on Craig's list and I said "I love you...thank you for the garden!" He smiled. It was hard freakin work. Then he told me that on Saturday when we started this whole thing be thought to himself "why in the world are we doing this!" I laughed because he never let on. It was always, "it is going to be a great garden." That it is.

Day 5 July 10th
The final plants are in and the water system is in place. All the plants are nicely labeled with super cute sticks and the garden is ready to grow. We are praying for a great harvest and looking forward to cooking with the fruits of it. My salsa tastes the best with tomatoes from our garden. This year we had a ton of things growing. Here is the final list: cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, green onions, Anaheim chile, jalapeños, habanero chile, red bell peppers, lettuce,mixed greens, radishes, zucchini, cucumber, sweet basil, green beans, brussel sprouts, corn, pumpkins, & cantaloupe!!!

I am excited for it all and thankful to my hard working husband that made it all happen.