My Garden-Making Crew!

Well, we didn't get to making the garden on Saturday as I had indicated last week. Though, Rob, the man with the rotortiller came and worked up the soil in my garden very thoroughly.

He's a friendly and considerate man, and when I thanked him for the tomato plants he gave me last year, (I popped those small cherry-sized tomatoes into my mouth just about as fast as they ripened all summer!)... yes, when I thanked him Rob offered to bring me the last ones he had left.

He was back at my front door with a box full of plants in about 15 minutes. Wow! There were 5 tomato plants and though he had started them in 2 inch square starter containers, the plants were from 2 to 3 feet tall! Very healthy plants too, plus two green pepper plants!

I was exhausted from all my prep work, but after a nap I went out and planted these plants and brought out a number of my wire cages for plants like this. Oh yes, and I dug the holes for the tomato plants extra deep, because I've learned (from online) that the more stem gets into the dirt, the more roots will grow out of that buried stem, making the plants extra strong and able to withstand taller heights and heavy loads of tomatoes.

One already has blossoms, so I should be eating tomatoes quite soon!

But I knew that my ESL students were waiting for my word that they could come help sow my garden as they did last year. I decided to take the holiday Monday off for seeding, and they were glad to agree on Sunday.

To save time that I knew I wouldn't be up for to cook - I picked up some frozen pizzas, and a big heavy watermelon on my way home. (But then I took along afternoon nap to recover from all I'd done on Saturday).

Yesterday morning I woke with a headache, and felt even more tired. I wondered how I could keep ahead of my helpers coming by 10:30, when I could hardly stand on my feet. But I prayed, and the lo, I had a miracle!

My headache cleared up in a few minutes, I was able to have my breakfast muffin at 10 and dash around to tidy up some things, and sweeping up the debris that fell from the trees over-night, setting up my folding lawn chairs, and brought my baskets of seeds out on the old weathered table. I was in fact, - ready for them when they arrived at 10:30!

I was pleasantly surprised at how eager the twins, David and Sophia were to get started. In fact, Sophia told me that last year it was all a great big first for them, but this time they knew what to expect - and truly, they were gungho to get started!

(Mind you, they had worn their good white runners, and in no they were dirty and somewhat muddy. David took charge of the hoe to scratch the lines, and Cecile and Sophia wanted to sow the seeds, so I was standing by the table and my baskets and trying to decide what should go in next; then jotting those down on an envelope - which I typed up last night.

When David finished making row-ruts, he took to watering them and Sandy grabbed the rake to close the rows that the girls had filled.

It turned out that Sandy had an agenda;she wanted the garden to be all finished by 12 noon,and they were NOT staying for a lunch of pizzas and watermelon with me. (David had a ballgame at 3:30 pm.)

In the end I was running out of ideas for the last 6 rows on the west side, near the bins, but that was mainly because this had gone so fast I didn't have time to think like I do when I'm making the garden by myself.

I also noticed that David had drawn the lines with the hoe much closer together than I said, and made them shorter. So I had allowed the girls to sow most of the seeds in two rows per package or my little supplement bottles. This will make it more tricky for me to weed between the rows - my feet having to straddle at least one row with my feet. (Well, maybe the weeds will be crowded out, eh?)

I will now resort to going out for just half-an hour to an hour sowing extra flowers along this fence, and over there, and when I've cleaned out the weeds by the back fence, I will turn that into a watermelon/squash/pumpkin hill again, like last year. Sunflowers in the alley against the fence for extra privacy. And of course,my pots for the back steps, and the flower beds in the front yard. So,..I'll still be sowing for a few weeks to come.

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