This Ain't No Garden of Eden!

Behold, the beauty of our largely overgrown, shamefully neglected, and ridiculously fruitful garden. Though our garden is no Garden of Eden, it, too, has a story. Back in May, Josh's mom, Adele, came to visit, with the intent of helping us on a yard project, since she herself is a lover of the great outdoors. Josh and I had contemplated growing a small vegetable garden, so we thought we would put Adele's expertise to use and plant one in our backyard. Well, Adele, of course, would hear nothing of this small, simple garden. What she envisioned was two 8'x20' garden plots, terracing out of our backyard hill. Catching her enthusiasm and vision, I thought this was a brilliant idea.

While Josh was at work, Adele and I traveled to her favorite store, The Home Depot, in her tiny, two-door rental car and bought the necessary supplies: planks of wood at least 10' long, plenty of nails and, of course, 8 patio chairs (4 for us and 4 for Josh's brother in VT. When I mentioned to Adele that she might be able to purchase the 4 chairs for Nate & Amy at The Home Depot in VT., she insisted that they were all out of the chairs in VT. So, after lugging the chairs three hours to VT. on the top of her car, it turns out they weren't, in fact, out of stock. Hmmmm.....). So, imagine loading all this into the tiny rental car: lots of rope, more patience, three offers from 3 different truckers to give us a ride home, an abundance of time spent on the roof of the car, more than enough strange looks, mounds of embarrassment, and a 30-minute drive home. Once home, we unloaded our spoils and got everything prepared for when Josh would arrive and he could start the drilling, hammering and constructing. Adele, only there for the weekend, just knew we could finish this project before she departed. Little did we know......

Well, after three and a half-weeks, millions of wheelbarrows full of rock-solid shale, hours of sweaty work, and a large supply of drugs to heal the back aches, Josh FINALLY dug out the two 8'x20' plots (he wasn't as thrilled at Adele's and my grand vision) and created the terraced garden boxes. Now all we needed was some dirt and manure and, of course, some vegetable plants. Dirt we got delivered on a large truck (mind you, to fill these two plots it took almost $300 worth of dirt). Manure was delivered on a small red truck--our red truck. Fortunately, a family in our ward has a farm and they offered us manure free of charge--we just had to get it ourselves. Then came the vegetables--oddly enough the easiest, cheapest part of the entire endeavor. Now, come the spoils. Since Josh and I claim this is our "practice garden" we've learned a few things: don't plant everything so close together, never plant pumpkins or else they will take over the garden (and the whole world for that matter), and never, never plant 7 tomato plants or 4 cucumber plants! We have so many vegetables that they're growing out of our ears; we can't give them away.......Like I said, our garden may be no Garden of Eden, but next year, I'm sure, it will be. Enjoy the pictures, Adelee! Thanks for all your help and expertise!

The right garden plot: tomatoes and cucumbers.

The left garden box: corn, pumpkins, basil & onions. (Ignore our hill and yard; they need much work, money & time to make them presentable. Perhaps next summer--what do you think, Adelee, are you game?) The lawn chairs. Try fitting 8 of these on the roof of a two-door car. You better be enjoying those chairs, Nate & Amy! Our first spoils! Lots & lots of cucumbers, some green peppers and a few tomatoes (though we don't know what kind since we planted 7 different types of tomatoes. They look like cherry tomatoes, though I am almost positive we didn't plant any of those).