A Veggie Garden

When my husband dug out our driveway, he made a huge pile of dirt in the back corner of our yard. It sat there for years, being dug into by dogs and kids and we always said, this summer we'd get rid of it. Then summer would pass and we'd be back to saying it would have to wait until nicer weather.

When he was in Cuba last year, I decided to get some of those projects that were hanging over his head off his list. Our church youth group came over and it took several loads, but the dirt pile was gone! Yes! Now, what do do with the big dirt oval where no grass was growing? Um, like, totally ignore it. Grass will grow there eventually....or next summer we'll plant grass. It's a vicious cycle for procrastinators!

Instead, this year, I suggested we grow some veggies. I'm not a green thumb, by any means. When my flowers come up in the spring, I'm always surprised they survived another season of my care. So a veggie garden is a big project.

E checked with his mom (who has a lovely garden) and she gave lots of good advice. Before I knew what was what, I had a mound of manure and another of top soil waiting to be shoveled out into our garden spot. My husband turned all the sod, laid down newspapers, and mixed up the top soil and manure. It looks great! A big, rectangular garden space.

And now it's my turn. What to grow? What to plant? What is hardy enough to survive me and my digging dogs? Because as soon as the dogs see me working in the dirt, it's a green light for them to come over and dig too....

We're not growing veggies because of the economy, or the worry that we should all be eating organic, it's because I like the idea of walking outside and getting some lettuce I grew to make our dinner salad. Our kids are excited about the idea of growing their own pumpkins, but booed the idea of zucchini. Plus, I had that big, unsightly area of non grass growing dirt.

We'll see how our garden does. I'm pretty sure it will be a lovely playground for dogs. They've already jumped the decorative fence that was supposed to keep them out, just so they could sit in the dirt.

Did I mention the manure? Yep. Dogs love that stuff. It's going to be a fun adventure!