Go Big or Go Home

I’m so excited, I barely know what to do with myself. The hubby and I have been talking, and we’ve decided to expand the garden A LOT. We’re tearing out lawn. We’re getting sprinklers rerouted. We’re tilling and amending soil. We’re installing formal drip irrigation just for the vegetable garden. In other words, we’re going Big Time, people!

What led up to this big (probably expensive) decision?

Reason #1

When we recently installed our DIY irrigation, gardening got a whole lot easier. For instance, we went on vacation without worrying about watering. In fact, I barely worry about watering at all anymore. And since I’m barely occupied with taking care of the daily needs of the plants, I have a lot more mind space to devote to planning and scheming. All of a sudden, I don’t have the physical space to accommodate all the schemes bouncing around in my head. Need proof? I give you exhibit A:

Tip toe. Tip toe. I can barely walk between my garden beds anymore

Exhibit B. I'm not even sure I know what's in this bed anymore:

Watermelon, sweet potatoes, green beans, okra... oh, I give up!

Reason #2

Like everyone else in the world, my family and I are trying to eat healthier. (I will not post pictures to illustrate this point. You’re just going to have to trust me that this is a good idea.) We joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) to help with this effort. (For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, when you join a CSA, a local farm gives you a bag a fresh “mystery” vegis every week for a set fee.) We thought this would be a great idea—we’d support a local farm, we’d eat a lot more vegis, and we’d be forced out of our comfort zone because they’d give us a lot of stuff that we might not otherwise try. The problem is they gave us a bunch of stuff that wasn’t as fresh as we would have hoped or was bitter because it was out of season. So much for that idea. We’ve never really been able to get ourselves to go to the Farmers Market on a regular basis (it’s a 30 minute drive for us), so it seems the only way to regularly get fresh, local vegis on a regular basis is to grow them ourselves.

Reason #3

Gardening makes me happy. This is probably the most important reason of all, people. I mean, as far as reason #2 goes, there are other ways to eat healthy without growing vegis in your own yard. But they wouldn’t make me happy the same way that growing them myself does. It amazes me that a teeny tiny little seed can grown into a sprawling plant that wraps eight feet in each direction and produces food day after day to eat. I feel like a freaking rock star when I can take that same plant and throw it in a composter to use for nutrients to help the next amazing plant grow. Even when things don’t work exactly as planned, I still love it. Here’s the one and only pumpkin that has produced from my pumpkin vine. I really would have hoped for more, but look at that beauty!

Ain’t she gorgeous?

So there you go: three good reasons to spend a lot of money to redo my yard, yet again. I could come up with more reasons, but I think that’s enough. Don’t you? I imagine we’ll do the work in late September/early October—roughly one year after the last major revamp of the garden. Stay tuned for updates.