It begins

I'm so excited. My Father-in-law showed up today and put up my second bed and brought a lot of composted dirt. It wasn't quite enough, so he's gonna bring some more (possibly tomorrow). But I now have one plot almost 4 X 4 and another one 4 x 8. Tomorrow after a doctor's appointment, my 11 year old son is going to help me mark off the 12 inch lines and put string up for the squares.

I may plant the smaller bed. So, tomorrow I'll be planting cucumber, bush beans, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, the first batch of carrots (staggered planting by 2 weeks) and chives. I have to wait until my herbs come in, and then I can plant cilantro. My son can't wait to plant the corn in the bigger one. My Father-in-law said not to plant my herbs in the bigger plot. He said he'll make me a little herb garden closer to the house, so I can sit on the porch and look at it. I think he's planning on putting them all in pots and then on paving stones. So I guess I could redo my planning and take out the herbs and add more vegetagles. That's a good thing because I read that you need one 4 X 4 plot per person in the family. That would actually make us one short. He said he has enough materials to make me another 4 x 8 plot, but we'll have to wait on the composted dirt.

I also have a compost pile, though I'm not very good at composting. He's much better than I am. I think I get impatient. We blew out a big 2 ft thick projection TV, and in the spirit of recycling, we used the base for a compost bin. I had a little in it, so my Father-in-law added all the trimmings from the pompus grass that had been lying there all winter, and a bag of leaves. He told me to just wet it daily for about 6 weeks before I even think about turning it. My husband is going to bring a 55 gallon drum home, and cut either huge holes, or the whole bottom out so I'll have a working compost. The working one is the one where you put your scraps from the kitchen in, or grass clippings, and then cover with dry leaves. He told me to put the ice cream bucket full of table scraps and clippings from cutting vegetables in the bottom and then cover with about 3 inches of leaves each time.

Hopefully as this progresses, I'll be able to get my husband to take some pictures of it with his camera phone.