Beat & Dirty

I picked up 5 big bags of Leafgro on my way home from work yesterday to help get some organic matter into our garden.  We had a very low yield from our vegetable garden in 2008 and decided to take the year off last year.  So we did a soil check and found that the thing lacking was organic matter.  Then given the advice from the gardening expert at The Urban Farmhouse (my sister), we picked up some Leafgro from a local nursery.

First we had to dig up the top layer and get all the green growth out of it.  I had put a bunch of dead leaves on it in the fall to get some compost going but there was still a lot of weeds in it.  Then once we finished that exhausting task and cutting out the Black Locust tree roots (they grow so fast and thick!), we got the kids to help us spread the Leafgro and work it into the soil.

Thankfully while we were digging, the kids played happily in their sand table although they were completely covered in white dust.  Piper surprised me the most staying at the table the longest.  Although it was pretty funny because she was so covered in white sand dust, she looked like a little ghost and when she ran, she had a dust cloud behind her, much like Pig Pen from Peanuts.

Finally, while Jason sprayed the garden down, the kids and I planted snap peas and Mesclun greens in our seed starters.  In a few weeks we'll replant them in the garden and then plant our tomato plants and zucchini seeds.  We're hoping for a banner year!  We decided against bell peppers since they don't yield much and my sister also said they're not worth the world.  Snap peas are our new veggie this year, so we'll see how well they work out.

I would have taken photos but given that Jay and I were covered in dirt, it didn't seem like a good time to be taking photos with an expensive camera.   The kids have all had showers/baths and now Piper is napping.  Jay and I are exhausted since aside from digging all morning and pulling up roots, we are both still getting over this damn cold which is taking a lot out of us still.  Unfortunately, Caroline and Bryce seem to have their normal amount of energy which means they are driving us a little crazy in our weary state.