The Garden Project

I should have titled this post The Garden Project, Which Is Sure To Fail. Because I lack a little thing we call 'follow through' - especially when it comes to manual labor.

Remember the compost bin? Yeah, composting only started happening like a week ago. But whatever, it's happening.

I feel like everybody on Earth has a garden except for me. This is, of course, illogical, and yet here we are. Unsurprised, I might add.

Anyway. I finally managed to haul, drag and toss Brian on board with the building a raised vegetable bed idea. I even found a lady on freecycle who wants to freaking GIVE me a wheel barrow. Plus I know a guy who knows a guy who has GREAT manure, whatever that means. So all that to say, I was beginning to think that maybe, maaaayyyyyyyybe, the garden thing might happen. maybe.

The dance of joy might have happened, as well.

So anyway, I was thinking last night about the prime location for the garden. We'd picked a spot, but frankly, I thought that spot would be ugly and annoying and frequently trampled by a hyperactive border collie who Does Not Like Change. And it occurred to me that a MUCH better place for the garden would be right smack in the middle of a Very Odd Landscaping Installation toward the back of our yard.

Now. I haven't shown you our back yard here. There are numerous reasons for this, not the least of which is, our yard is kind of ugly. Other factors include my supreme laziness, my tendency to delete all images showing the back yard from my camera, and also how easily I am distracted. (I was gonna have a picture for this post, but then I got distracted, and then it was dark, and then ... )

And one of the ... less attractive, more difficult to understand ... things going on in the yard is... a mystery circle, outlined in large rocks of about 12 different makeups, and filled with dirt about a foot higher than the actual ground. It really is kind of a weird thing, with various other pieces of rock-like debris filling the center. I mean, seriously. What the heck is that thing? Was there a fountain there once? Maybe a hammock? Maybe a fire pit? But it's too big around to be a fire pit, and too small to have a fire pit AND places to sit. Is it a grave of some sort? (and if so...what the...) I have spent the past 6 months basically stumped about this...thing...in my back yard. It's really just kind of weird.

Incidentally, Rory LOVES it when her tennis ball bounces up there. It's like a crazy-land for ball-obsessed dogs who want the ball to remain in perpetual motion. There's just so much weird stuff for it to bounce off. It is also an ideal location for a doggie version of King of the Mountain, in case you were wondering.

But anyway, when it occurred to me that that would be the best spot for me to put our garden, I thought that maybe we could clean up the mystery dance circle/altar/platform/burial grounds and turn it into something of use. Brian would once again need to be hauled/dragged/tossed on board - I think he had grown fond of the idea of 'building things' and 'using tools' - but before I began a new campaign, I needed to investigate the potential site.

And investigate, I did! I was turning the compost like the most awkward composter you've ever seen (I was doing it with a rake, because I don't even own a shovel, just a rake) and I figured a rake might also be handy to poke around the mystery fire pit/pedestal/henge/outpost. So I trudged over with my multi-purpose rake and started...I don't know, raking the dirt, and the dead plants, and the whatever and stuff. There was some stuff, rocks and twigs and dried up brambly looking plant-like leftovers on the surface of the dirt and I just kind of moved it around, maybe toward the edges or something. Shut up, you wouldn't know what to do, either.

I should let you know right here that I would not have been surprised if I uncovered remains, if you know what I mean.

Anyway. So I'm raking, and I'm looking around, and I'm combatting rocks with my super awesome rake of multi-purposing glory, and I realize.... this dirt doesn't look like half-bad dirt!

You see where this is going. You probably saw where this was going, but like 6 months before I did. You are that much savvier than I.

So then I notice what appears to be the remains of several of those little tabs that come stuck in potted plants.

THIS! used to be a raised vegetable bed!!!

I should have expected nothing less.

Winning, duh.

Happy Rotting Stuff!

Being the crazed hippie creation care advocate that I am, I have long considered composting as a 'thing to do' at home. I never bit the bullet, though, for a few reasons:

1. When I first heard of composting, it involved worms. Couldn't get over that.
2. When I then leanred about non-wormy composting, I wanted to try it! But I was living in Richmond, with no money, thinking I would probably be moving soon. So I decided to delay the decision until more money and more permanence allowed.
3. When we moved, thereby acquiring semi-permanence as well as more money, we were living in an apartment complex. Composting was outlawed. LAME.

Which brings me to now....

I have my Top Three Reasons Why Our New Rental House Is Awesome (back yard; room to entertain; close enough to work to downsize a car) and I have my list of smaller reasons to look forward to being in the house. Having a yard will be nice. There's a cute little sunroom that will be great. Line-drying clothing will be easier. I can tinker with a garden. I can tinker with growing flowers! I can do all those goofy little housewifey things I like to do.

AND. I can compost.

So the price tag on compost bins is a little high. I'm looking at startup costs maybe around $100. Suckzorz.

EXCEPT!

So this next part is a little bit of a detour. There's kind of a weird hedgey thing running along the back fence, overgrown with some kind of viney thing that I don't recognize. There might be much pruning and whacking of weeds when we move in. It's particularly jungle-y behind the garage.

Which is why I never noticed something before:

A COMPOST BIN!

It is completely overgrown and has all kinds of who-knows-what growing up and reaching out of all its lids and drawers and openings... but it is THERE. And now, it is MINE.

The only composting start-up cost I'll have will be factored in manual labor. Because there will be some labor involved in getting this thing in working order.

In fact, it's so overgrown I can't really even tell what kind of bin it is. It's tall, and probably black, and I'm guessing it's probably one of these or maybe one of these. Extricating it from the jungle will be tough, and I'm guessing it will weigh a whole freaking lot. But that's what we have husbands for, right?

I can't wait to get it cleaned up and start composting.

Once I figure out how to start composting, that is....

What's the weirdest thing you ever got excited over?

Wedding Vows

Normally, when it comes to wedding vows (and a whole slew of other things) I am a pretty traditional girl. We had a traditional wedding, fairly Presbyterian in nature, with the hymns and the organ and the no-clapping rule (which was broken, if I remember correctly. I was a little busy at that particular moment.).

In bible study the other night, one of the ladies mentioned a new take on the old wedding vow - promising to be together for 'as long as we both shall love' - which, to me, sucks. There are so many comments I could make about that particular cop-out of choice, none of them nice. So I'll refrain.

Really though, a lot of 'we wrote our vows' vows are pretty lame, as far as I've experienced. Weak, and ignorant, and stupid. Maybe I should tell you how I really feel.

I was over at Flora's blog daydreaming about a succulent wall when I spotted these DIY wedding vows, and I have to admit, I think they're pretty cute. Not for me, and probably not 'solemn vow before God and all our loved ones' vows for a church wedding, but cute nonetheless.


“Jonathan: I vow to love you
Kestrin: I vow to love you
J: to respect you
K: to always make fun
J: to be your best friend ever
K: to constantly generate a force field of awesome to guide and protect us
J: to do what I love
K: to actively maintain our relationship
J: to be lucky
K: to live a charmed life
J: to live as long as possible
K: to ask nicely for what i need
J: to communicate my feelings effectively
K: to live a life of hilarious bliss together
J: to provide for you
K: to solve problems
J: to make time for you every single day
J: to remain curious
K: to stand by my man
J: to put our relationship first
K: to build a community around us
J: to build a family life together
K: to give you babies
J: to change the diapers on those babies
K: to be great parent
J: to sing with you in the morning
K: to give you shoulder rubs, intermittently, for as long as we both shall live
J: to remember how lucky I am
K: to rock out with our great grandchildren
J: to take you on one hundred honeymoons
K: to maintain a menagerie
J: to clean up
K: to sing songs to you
J: to speak for you when you sing your voice out
K: to throw radical parties
J: to be faithful to you
K: to take joy in doing nice things for you
J: to be compassionate
K: to be devoted
J: to be committed
K: to be happy
J: to listen to you
K: to support you
J: to stay with you forever
K: Do you vow to be my husband?
J: I do. Do you vow to be my wife?
K: I do.”


Your turn. What's your take on wedding vows? Did you/would you write your own? What do you think about vowing to stay married for 'as long as we both shall love'? Do you think wedding vows have anything to do with God? Fire away!

Chill.

Tuesday was a bad day for me. It was really one of those days - which you expect - during which the puppy was making me crazy, I'd fallen on the ice twice so I was in pain, and I kept staring at the piles and lists and to-dos, feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed.

Outside, it got cold in Denver. That afternoon some big heavy snow clouds flew in over the mountains and the temps dropped around 10 degrees. Which was just as well because I didn't want to go outside anyway. Brian had meetings all day and into the evening, and by the time it was about 6:30, I had had my fill of dogs and whining and cleaning and not getting things done.

So I had myself a good cry. The angry kind, with the hot, bitter tears, and the feelings of being overwhelmed and underappreciated and just plain exhausted swirling around, the terrible accompanying thoughts going in and out of my mind.

There's nothing like a good cry.

And there's nothing like coming out of a good cry. I let it roll until everything quieted down, and then I decided something had to change. I needed some ME time. Some mental space. A break.

I knew I had about half an hour or so before Brian would be home, so I crated the dogs with some food, turned on some soothing music (Norah Jones, if you must know) and I got comfortable on the couch and read through some gardening books I'd picked up at the library the day before.

There is nothing so hopeful and restorative as looking through gardening books in the dead of winter. And y'all, I made another list.

Two lists, actually.

Of the green thumb things I wanted to try this year. Vegetables and herbs I wanted to grow, namely. And somewhere on that list is also 'find a potted lemon tree.' Because, for some reason, I have my little heart set on having a lemon tree.

When Brian came home, I was in a better frame of mind (though, I must admit, not for long enough to get us through the evening without incident).

Do you ever have days that make you feel like pulling out your hair, tossing everything out the window, and hiding? What do you do to calm yourself down? How do you get past the overwhelm?