Prepping the Garden

Ufff! I should have taken some ibuprofen before bed. I woke up achy. I’ve been spending evenings after work tilling the patch at the side of my Tiny House in preparation for a garden. 1) I’m not sure about how much space I’ll need, 2) I’m not sure when the big trees leaf out if there will be too much shade, 3) I don’t know anything.

I do know that when I turned up the dirt there were lots of long, pink, healthy worms. A good sign.

I’ve probably spent $100 dollars getting the ground ready. I bought seeds, soil, and some gardening tools. Some of these expenditures are one-offs. Now that I own them, but the soil and seeds are money in the ground. Luckily, some of the seeds have already sprouted indoors under lamps.

The idea of gardening is not new to me. I’ve always wanted to have one—but in Chicago it simply didn’t make sense. Food was plentiful. (Though I would have loved a tomato that tasted like a tomato). Then in Oregon my roommate Jon tore up some thorny huckleberry bushes and planted seeds from packets. I felt sorry for him, thinking, This isn’t going to work. Well, it did.

Turns out the sunflower grew to seven feet and the kale and tomatoes were abundant. All we had to do was water and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

At my townhouse last year I did container gardening and got a bit of everything: kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and pole beans. Not in quantities to can, but I did freeze, and eat.

This year, we have carrots, cucumbers, pole beans, 2 kinds of tomatoes, kale, basil, spearmint, sunflowers, sweet peppers, eggplant, and spring onions. And a tiny bit of squash. I’m learning how my garden grows, inch by inch.




Garden Song by Pete Seeger

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

Inch by inch, row by row
Please bless these seeds I sow
Please keep them safe below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones
We are made of dreams and bones
Need a place to call my own
'Cause the time is close at hand

Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature's chain
Till my body and my brain
Tell the music of the land

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

Plant your rows straight and long
Season with a prayer and song
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her loving care

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

Slug by slug, weed by weed
Boy this garden's got me t'd
All the insects come to feed
On my tomato plants

Sunburt face, skined up knees
The kitchen's chocked with zucchinis
I'm shopping at the A&P's
Next time I get the chance

Old crow watching from a tree
He's got his hungry eye on me
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
Gonna mulch it deep and low
Gonna make it fertile ground

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