V is for Victory!

After a nice, fortifying breakfast of bacon, eggs & oatmeal, we dragged ourselves off to the mulch depot for another round of gathering. It is 96 degrees out, probably 70% humidity. In other words, we are crazy.

Even Mr. Smarty Pants took a turn, willingly and without being asked, while Mr. Autism rocked out in the car to some classic rock, since the Eagles etc makes more since when doing manual labor in the hot Florida sun than, say, Lady Gaga.

We had one goal: to get enough mulch to finish the big southwest section of the garden without a return trip to mulch central.

I am pleased to report that victory was achieved. My beloved and I are sweaty, filthy and likely sunburnt. I have blisters from raking the mulch into places it did not want to go, and we will probably feel very old in the morning, but the mulching is done!

The only thing that remains is to bury the rest of the soaker hose and then plant, plant, plant!

We are both feeling rather done in for the day though, so now we're off to my in-laws' swimming pool and some much needed relief from the heat.

Later tonight, we will barbecue some ribs, I will steam up some green beans (from the farmer's market, not my garden, sadly enough), and sit and bask in the righteous satisfaction of a job well-done.

We've decided, jointly, to wait until September and the slightly cooler temperatures it brings, to do the northwest smaller plot of garden. It just makes sense.

Meanwhile, in other news, my in-laws have granted me permission to use a built-in garden bed that's been empty for years. It's a stretch about 2' wide by 20' long, in a nice area of the yard. It even has a water connection right next to the bed, which will make setting up the soaker hose so simple. My mother-in-law said she won't mind just turning on the hose every once in a while. We're over there every weekend anyways, so it will be easy to tend.

I'm anticipating maybe a few hours' work to get it set up and planted. The soil will need to be tilled to work in a bag of composted manure. Aside from a few extra baby sprouts I will transplant there, I think I will try directly seeding the soil, and see how that works out. Once they sprout and get established, then we will mulch it.

It'll be cheap to set up - under $20 for the hose and the composted manure. And since I have such a small planting area myself and like to grow a bunch of different things, I already have more seeds than I would've been able to use myself.

The tricky thing will be deciding what to grow, since I want them to be able to use some of the produce as well. I enjoy that kind of trickiness in my life though.

Today, I am a very dirty and tired but happy person.