Let the gardening begin.
We've had no rain for the past week or so, and the garden plot is finally dry enough to work the soil. Rain chances are pretty high for this weekend, though, and I wanted to prepare the soil before the rain sets us back another week.
On my way home from work yesterday, I stopped by the garden center to buy plants and seeds, hoping to get them planted this weekend. The "Hossinator" tomato seeds, planted on April 20, are just now starting to sprout their first real leaves, so I got a dozen greenhouse tomato plants to get the party started.
We'd planned to spend last evening attending our granddaughter's high school band concert, but mid-afternoon she texted us with the news that the concert would be mostly about recognizing the band's 37 graduating seniors (she is not one of the seniors) and would probably last a long time. Two hours in a hot, stuffy gymnasium? I think not. In response to that text, I said that we would skip this concert so we could get started on the garden.
About an hour before The Husband was due home from work, I went down to the garden and pulled up the posts, fencing, and landscape fabric from last year's tomato rows so that The Husband could get busy tractoring when he came home. He'd been part of The Granddaughter's group text, so he knew what was in store for him. He showed up, dressed for gardening, a little after 6 p.m. The Nephew showed up a few minutes later and helped with attaching the plow, the disc, and the tiller. He even did some of the driving.
In the garden shed, there was a 50# bag of pulverized lime, bought last year. There was also a bag of pelletized fertilizer in the shed. After the first round with the tiller, we applied both the lime and the fertilizer, then we tilled again to work them in. By this time, it was dark enough that we had to turn on the tractor's headlights to see what we were doing.
We got home about 8:30, hungry, exhausted, dripping with sweat, and covered in dirt and lime. I'd worn Crocs in the garden, and they were full of dirt. I dumped the dirt in a flower bed on the way in the house, then headed straight for the shower, shoes and all. For dinner, we rolled up string cheese in a slice of bologna. Dinner of champions.
All that's left is to hill up the rows and get the stuff in the ground. We don't own a hiller. I've been looking for one all morning, but none are available locally. Maybe Uncle Jack will let us borrow his hiller for a couple of hours tomorrow.
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P.S. - Looks like we won't be gardening this weekend, after all. It rained a gully-washer this afternoon. On the bright side, maybe it'll melt the lime and fertilizer we put down yesterday.
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