I can dig it.

I have been holding the wrong end of a shovel these last few days.  My sweetheart always asks, "Which end is the right end of a shovel?"  I roll my eyes at her smart joke and say, "When you get to the end of needing the shovel, that's the right end."

This spot above was the only garden area for many years.  I mostly grew flowers.  Everything else on this side of the creek was mowed like a lawn. (I hate mowing)  A few years back my sweetheart talked me into growing vegetables for other people and now I have a much bigger garden.  Over these years I have standardized the beds so that they are all 3 foot wide by 35 feet long.  Except the older part of the garden pictured above .  These beds were 4 to 5 feet wide and 65 to 75 feet long.  All the drip irrigation line for the rest of the garden is 35 feet long.  Everything else is 35 feet.  So I decided to re shape these beds to 3 x 35 this year.  I rototilled the whole area.

Layed out the new beds with string and starting shoveling.  I could shovel the dirt in the pathways between the beds onto the beds to make them raised at the rate of about a foot a minute.  It would take me a little bit more than a half an hour to get to the end of a 35 foot bed creating a pathway between two beds.  One shovel after another.  Just do the next one.  Now do the next one.  Just like the rest of the gardening work 35 feet is the distance that I can look at and say,  "I can do that much."   I'd shovel half an hour, take a break, do something else and go pick up the shovel again.  All I have to do is this next shovel full.  And the next one and . . . .

Here's where I found the right end of the shovel.  A wide path between the asparagus (on the left) and the new beds.  Each row is 2 -  35 foot long beds with a 4 foot pathway in between them.  4 Rows across then a wide pathway for access to yonder garden then 2 more rows then another wide pathway and then amber raspberries to the right (out of picture).   I will need to dig up and move the iris to its new home later this summer.

Then comes mulch for the pathways.  Some of it has to be moved in a cart.  A good hay fork is a must.  

I like moving it with the mower.  

I'm amazed at how well I can steer the bales.  I finished mulching the pathways on the other side and drove the diminishing bale to to the house side of the garden to finish mulching the paths on this side.  One way the bale rolls across the ground. 

Take off the straps and roll the bale the other way and it unrolls a layer of hay that I move over into the garden with the hay fork.  Paths complete. Now it's time to rake the beds and plant.

disclainmer:

All gardening techniques, methods, and labor described in any posting of this blog are presented strictly to make you laugh and smile.  Any educational value you attribute to any of this is solely the result of your overactive imagination and my excellent story telling skills.  Do not try this at home, unless you know what you are doing or can build your wings on the way down.  Any use, misuse, or non use of the contents of this blog is your responsibility, but I would love to hear about it, especially if it's funny. Hopefully this blog will leave us both laughing.  I know it makes me laugh and one out of two ain't bad.  Remember:  YOU have got to make your own luck. . . and I'll take luck over skill any day.