Gardening Smaller Means Something's Got To Go

If you looked at my garden, you would be surprised to know it was a vegetable garden just last year. In fact, I think people have walked by our place and wondered why we have a chicken wire fence blocking off part of our lawn. Just makes it harder to get the lawn mower back there, evidenced by how tall the grass and weeds were growing.

So I buckled down. I went out there and started digging out the garden. It wasn't just a task of "weeding". Oh no, not even close. It was literally digging out the grass that had decided to stake it's claim. It's like a war. I won a brief battle, but the grass knows that dirt really belongs to it, and it's not going to let it go easy.

And after long hours working, fingernails caked with dirt, slug slime and I hope to goodness just funky smelling mud, I was half done.

Half done with the garden, half done in from the work.

After much soul searching and back and forth waffling, I asked my husband to move the fence so it encloses the half of the garden that is dirt only, and weed free as of yesterday. The other half is a lost cause. It's more grass than dirt and the lawnmower can have it.

But with a shrunken down garden, what veggies do I want to grow the most? I have to narrow it down. Peas, yes. Lettuce, absolutely. Zucchini, one hill should do the trick. Carrots, no.

The only member of our family that loves carrots with a zeal that borders on obsession is Olive Badger. She digs them up and eats them as fast as they grow. I prefer it if she isn't in the garden digging, and since the rest of us just like carrots but have no desire to go out and check on their growth repeatedly through out a day, I think I'll skip them this year.

Besides, my husband informed me yesterday, the ones I grow have never tasted as good as his Mother's! Then he quickly added, it's probably the dirt's fault.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with them being dug up by a dog and replanted by me.