Erik has given me such a gift, in this garden. He encouraged me in my interest. He has had absolute confidence, and continues to hype how awesome this is going to be. He has always said “yes” and “do more”. And he has put in so much labor to make it happen. This garden, truly, is a labor and gift of love.
When we ended Part 1, I’d drawn out several plans, ultimately settling on a design, and I’d mapped the design to the real space in the yard. It was time to start taking steps to make it real! I was nervous! We were going to make pretty serious changes to our property, just because I thought it’d be fun! What if I ruined everything? Erik had no such worries. “It’s going to be awesome” has been his refrain.
First, shouts to our neighbor across the street, Al, who loaned us truly huge tiller. Erik used this to till the ground (April 2, 2023).
It’s truly a beast. It ran away with him a couple of times, and he fought it on the slopes. I’m glad we ended the day with everyone’s toes intact. But, as he worked, it began to look something like a garden.
We also put up a bench at the end of the garden, so I could sit and watch my garden grow. I will take photos from there throughout the season. This is the view at the end of Tilling Day. (And also a view of the bench, right after I put it up.)
A few days after tilling, I borrowed a friend’s truck (bless my workplace, and the fact like 6 people there own trucks they’re happy to let you borrow) and Erik and I headed to the local home improvement store for some landscape timbers. I looked at a lot of options, and felt like they hit the right balance of cost, durability, and aesthetic. At home, we unloaded and I started laying them out to, once again, bring my hypothetical design one step farther into the real world.
And, a few days later, we installed. Erik cut timbers to length. We drilled holes through, and hammered long spikes into the ground to hold the timbers in place. Erik also placed the tposts, which was a major arm workout — lifting the heavy tpost pounder over his head, repeatedly. Once again, I was giddy as it started to “really look like a garden”.
Monday I called a local landscape supply to order some garden dirt and mulch. They offered to deliver the next day. Obviously I said yes, not really thinking it through. So Tuesday, 3 cubic yards of garden soil and 2 cubic yards of mulch arrived on my driveway. It was probably closer to 5 and 3 cubic yards, respectively. Erik was home to receive it, and started moving dirt before I got home from work. We worked together until sundown, and just barely got it all managed. The new garden beds got a few inches each. The squash bed needed some real filling. And we ended up with extra, which we bagged and packaged up for future use. Wednesday night, we repeated the process with mulch. This pretty much only went on the established perennial beds, so less part of this specific project.
And that brings us to today! Saturday! Cattle panel day! The final infrastructure piece going in! Erik had a plan to bring them home using his scion. I was deeply skeptical. It’s a good little car, but it’s a little car, and these cattle panels are 16 feet long. I didn’t think a truck would necessarily be a simple solution either, and broadly speaking I trust Erik’s judgement, so I thought I’d let him try.
We went to Tractor Supply, he loaded them up, and spoke the sacred incantation: “That’s not going anywhere!” We drove home. I’m somewhat shocked we didn’t get pulled over. It definitely should’ve qualified as obstructed driving.
At home, Erik started wiring the panels to the Tposts. This took some hours, and a fair bit of cussing.
And now… it’s done! A stage set, ready to be filled with green things! Some cool-weather plants are already in… potatoes, onions, shallots, peas, radishes, lettuce, carrots, leeks… but soon it will be time to start really kicking into gear: tomatoes, peppers, herbs, beans, cucumbers, squash… we will have such an abundance!
You will notice in this post, almost every step is “Erik…” And that’s not under-stating my own contribution. This part of the project has been so much of his labor and planning, in service of my vision. He believes in my dream. He has poured his sweat into setting me up for success. I am so grateful.
Notebook 