Gardening Adventures – It Begins lol

So, this is a picture of what my driveway looks like right now. This is about a third of the soil that we will eventually need to have delivered to us in order to cultivate the side of the lawn pictured here. This is because we are three inches away from bedrock, maybe less. This was a huge shock when we were planting roses a couple of years ago. I knew we were close to the bedrock, but had no idea at all that it was at most, three inches down. We live in the shadow of the mountain, in its water-basin, and the mountain guards us, but oh it does make gardening a challenge!

A local gardener suggested that we have proper soil delivered and so we have done. It’s beautiful soil too, rich and lush and black. We decided to do three separate deliveries to make it all easier and less intimidating to shovel and rake out. After two days of working on that, I decided to hire someone because with my back injury, I just can’t do it. Fortunately, a local farmer, a young woman contacted us almost immediately after I put the add out and all this should be sorted by the weekend. I’m grateful for the help and she is happy with the work. It’s a win-win. A friend said, “that’s a lot of money you’re paying” (I had set a rate I was comfortable with and thought fair when I posted my ad) and I promptly responded, “After doing this myself for the last two days, it’s worth every penny and more.” It’s labor. (Normally Sannion would help whip it right out but he’s had some pain issues lately, esp. with the cold weather, and I’m not willing to risk it). 

This weekend, we’ll be making offerings to Erda, using a version of the Acerbot charm and setting out eggs, bread, milk, honey, and beer at the four corners of our home, the four corners of the yard that will be our garden.

In the meantime, since I know that we are unlikely to have the best harvest in our first year, the household has joined a local CSA. We buy shares in a local farm’s vegetable crop. I drive past the farm we chose almost weekly as it’s not far from my friend Mary Ann’s house. Starting the end of May, we’ll have weekly vegetables and the opportunity to pick herbs and flowers if we so choose. If we have too much, I’ll share with the neighbors or can them for later use. This way, I can be supporting local farmers too. We are still considering our meat and egg options but I suspect that once Covid restrictions are over, the local farmer’s market will handle that.

That’s one of the things our ancestors have pushed us to do: develop a network of farms, farmers, farmer’s markets, etc. because no one needs to do every single thing, but we can support and sustain each other.

More to come, I am sure, though right now I feel as though I shall never move from this sofa again lol.