Building a Garden

When I was a kid, my siblings and I used to go to someone’s house who’s cars had CB’s. We had to pick out our handle- our name other’s would know us by. I chose “Green Thumb”. I was an aspiring gardener- which to my 8 year old self meant very little other than eating spinach straight out the garden.

Fast forward a bunch of years and my green thumb, well, let’s just say, it hasn’t fully developed yet. I like to think of my green thumb as really more of a lovely chartreuse color. I’ve managed to be able to plop a few plants in the ground and most of them have made it, give or take a rose bush (it’s a hearty little thing and should win an award for still making it under duress conditions). I’ve yet to venture into successful veggie growing.

This year, that’s all going to change!

Thanks to a crew of 6, our backyard now has two 12’x4’ raised beds.

So you’ve got to start things off right, which includes at least two trips to your local lumber/home improvement store- in our case, Lowes. In the first trip, you must take 3 kids, park at the opposite end of the store in relation to where your stuff actually is, load the timbers in one of those non-steerable cart thingies, have 2 kids try to ride while you push it to the main aisle, only to find you must actually go back into the store- halfway into the store- to pick up your other things and so then decide that somehow your raised garden bed will stay together with a glue gun, staples and Japanese Washi Tape but no way are you going to navigate that wheeled disaster back through the store for 10 spikes.

You will not get the same special memory any other way.

Note: On the second trip, you send your husband, who really knows what’s going on anyway with the boys. On the third trip, you leave the kids home to have popcorn for supper while you go with your hubs. Drop that silly notion that this trip is romantic. That has wore off loooong ago. It’s just quiet and you can think for once and have a full conversation with an adult for 30 minutes.

 Ben got permission to dig in the middle of the beds. Like everything he really enjoys, he went after it full gusto.

What does Norm always say (besides safety glasses are your best tool)? That’s right- Measure twice, cut once.

I’m demonstrating how to hold a spike.

Audrey took ownership of a few jobs- drilling holes for the spikes and putting in the screws. But first, she needed a few tips and Ben and Luke supervise the supervisor, supervising the worker. Reminds me of a joke…

Lucy is really the main job site supervisor. Obviously here, she’s making sure Mama’s garden will be level. If she’s gonna have to jump into it, she wants to clear it evenly.

Again, lots of supervising. Notice Ben’s hole. At one point he tried to put Luke on his back and then stand on the shovel for more leverage.

Can sleeping on the site get you fired?

Here it is, all finished. Now to fill it up!