My Garden-making Helpers Came Yesterday

As as happened the previous two years, some of my ESL students from church came to help me yesterday, which was Victoria Day, a holiday here, to help me make my garden.

Over the last two weeks I had spent an hour after my supper, to weed the two sides of my backyard/garden. When I called the man with the rototiller to ask if he could come till through my garden on Saturday he said no, he was committed for that time, but he could come on Sunday afternoon.

I decided to accept that time, not my first choice, and I mentioned to him that I had friends ready to help me on the holiday Monday, so we agreed, and I said I'd be home by 2 pm.

Rob explained that he'd had back and knee surgery, so his son would be helping him, and sure enough Rob and I stood talking most of the time while his son, it turns out, is a football coach, did the tilling. Cardell did it just like his dad, letting the tiller go down deep into the soil and going over every trip three times, so my sandy garden soil is fluffy again!

I phoned my ESL friend, Sandy that same evening to let her know that yes, we were on for Monday morning. She and her twin teens, David & Sophia, arrived at 10 am and we all worked hard until 12. We were not done yet, but I said it was okay. (I was personally quite exhausted from being on my feet so long and supervising, showing them how far apart to draw the lines, and how deep to cover the seeds. Also choosing the seeds to do next, and jotting them down the rows and which seeds went where, so I could draw up my garden map later.)

Because there was only a couple of inches of water in the rain barrel, I had hooked up the garden hose and let David water the rows that were seeded, but since the soil was so soft it got quite muddy and all four of us were tracking wherever we walked.

I sensed that they were ready to go at 12 noon, but didn't want to desert me, so I explained that my sister was coming from BC later this week, with her adult daughter, and that I was sure Elsie wanted to show me gardening tricks that I didn't know yet, so it was okay that some rows at the far end of the garden were not seeded yet.

In fact, I've been wondering if perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if I did this seeding myself next year, even if I only got 3-6 rows done in an evening. It might take me a week or more to get done, but I'd be able to control the distance between rows, and the depth and spacing of the seeds as I normally do. (Last year I had to re-seed some rows because the seeds had been covered too deeply.)

Incidentally, the wheelbarrow of buckets of green onions was cleared out except for one last pot, by sunset. I gave that one away to a visitor the next day.

I also have been enjoying the big pot of green onion soup I made last week. I still have about 3 bowls full left to enjoy. So now I expect I'll enjoy my green onions more often myself!

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