Cary and I built our raised garden this evening, erected on the same spot where last year’s garden attempt had failed miserably. The garden walls were a cinch to set up, taking only about 2 minutes to build. Clearing away the area and adding the dirt was the hardest part. Grass had already overgrown the area, which I spent about 30 minutes or so clearing away. It is at the point that I must give props to a very handy garden tool: the stirrup hoe. It’s a tool of singular purpose with a bawdy name (but not as bawdy as it’s other common name, the hula hoe). It made short work of the grass and weeds. Pulling weeds is back-breaking work, but the stirrup hoe reduces the stress of the labor to back-bending. It doesn’t sound like much of an improvement, but stripping a 4′ x 6′ area of weeds and grass in half an hour works for me. Had we not just finished moving our old refrigerator into the garage earlier this evening, I might have cleared the spot in less time, but a body can only do so much.
So far, here’s what we have:
Will it yield actual food? Time will tell.