The garden grows!

My grand plan to roto-till and compost my veggie garden this weekend worked, with Nature’s grudging permission. Under a cloudy and sometimes drizzly sky, Kat and I roto-tilled until we could roto-till no more. I would’ve captured this with photos but (a) it didn’t occur to me and (b) I would’ve been too exhausted to even press the shutter. The ground was damp, but not too wet to work. Still, tilling hard ground is difficult, and Kat has a broken finger in a big splint! But my baby worked that roto-tiller until it dropped. And she dropped. And I dropped.

One of my sore arms; my right hand is still so shaky I can barely auto-focus:

Can you see the pain? Look at my blister!


But it was all worth it! Here is the (almost) final result (I still have a lot of seeds to plant):


Kat re-designed my old layout, moving the door and pulling the fence in off the lawn a few feet. To compensate for those lost few feet, we planted the tomatoes, which the bunnies rarely bother, in the bed near the house:

Once the daffodils die out and the toms grow taller, I’m hoping to stake them into some sort of obedience within this smaller space. I don’t know if it will work, but Kat’s confident, so I am too.

The unfenced feet, then, will house Kat’s flowers, two blueberry bushes, a blackberry, a raspberry, and some eggplant, which we’ll train up onto the arch. (I’ll be spraying the little plants with hot-pepper spray, to deter bunnies.)

The blueberry:

That big stick is just a marker; the tiny twig I'm holding is the blueberry plant. Er--it's gonna take a while to get established.
Some flowers:


The ever-growing compost heap, now covered with mushroom compost:

A pretty little bug on a dandy flower:

I love those little curly--I guess they’re stamens?

I hope this year’s garden turns out better than last year’s. Last year, we didn’t roto-till and I didn’t weed. I was very involved in beginning to bird and starting this blog, so I admit I kind-of paid less attention to the garden than I should have. However, I did dig the fence down after several bunny disasters cost me my lettuce and cilantro a few times. Still, it was an untidy place, and the yield was disappointing.

Going back to the archives, I found my second-ever post, entitled My Birdy Thoughts, on this blog:

What I'd like to have happen on this blog at some point:
1. photos of birds
2. a digiscoping camera thingie to take photos of birds
3. my life list
4. someone big-time like Birdchick reading my blog--even once!
5. questions for other beginning birders

I realized all these things have happened, even#4. Birdchick even chose one of Niblet’s disapproving photos for her Disapproving Rabbits book! It’s gratifying to look back and see what I’ve accomplished. My lifelist has practically doubled (which isn’t saying that much, as it’s still fewer than 100 birds), I’ve got a decent beginner’s digiscoping rig (which will be complete once my tripod arrives tomorrow by UPS!), and I’ve certainly posted lots of bird photos and questions for other birders, both beginners and experienced ones. I’m getting a little teary-eyed. . . .

So I’ll leave you with these links to two posts from August 2006, about Niblet’s experience in the weedy garden.
Part 1 and
Part 2