Garden Time!!

Wow. Been a week since I posted. Hmmm.


Well, let's talk gardens, eh?


I love fresh veggies. My best memories I have are my dad and I eating tomatoes and cukes right out of the garden. My parents always had a garden, both in Vegas and Ogden, but then once I left, it turned into a flower garden.

I tried one in St. George but it was SO hot there, that everything pretty much burned up. The tomatoes did great however.

So we move here. I'm learning about the climate and what works and what doesn't. I have been working on a garden for four years now. The location kept changing because our yard is big and hilly and I was never sure where might be the best place for drainage, convenience, sun, etc.


Several locations were popping up: the most obvious choice was in the back 40 (I call it that; it's really not far, just behind the barn and the Zen pond) or next to the house (which would have to be completely renovated and redone) or behind the basketball court (which was the silliest spot).


We finally decided that, even though it was a walk, the back 40 is the best place. It was a large, flat spot with full sun almost all day all year. The guy who owned and built this house had some great ideas; lots of drainage, nice rooms, trout pond. But he also had some horrible ideas like ...... well, you'll see. I didn't know this fact until I decided to create a garden back there and rented a large rototiller.


So I'm tilling away, turning over the hard pack, feeling happy that I might finally get a garden and what appears before my eyes? A bed spring. Then pieces of broken mirror.


A rusty chain. I'm getting worried at this point.


A piston. What?


A crushed, burned fire extinguisher. I was aghast, my mouth falling open, holding this thing.


Finally, it dawned on me. This person would take ALL his garbage - even the stuff that can't burn - torch it and then bury the leftover pieces.


I sort of understand the burning part; lots of people burn their paper trash around here. It's quite common.


But this guy was so cheap that he didn't want to pay anyone to take any of his garbage and ... what? .. Thought, "Hmmm. If I burn it and then bury it, it will go away."


Really? It will just go away? A fire extinguisher will decompose? Agh.


That was three years ago. That was when I decided that I should make garden boxes instead, believing if I did try to plant or eat anything from that contaminated soil, we might start growing extra arms or worse, lose what appendages we did have.


I made one garden box, planted some radishes, let the deer and slugs eat what popped up and gave up.


To be continued ........ The Deer Fence.