Coming Of Spring ~ The "Honey Do" List.....

Picture courtesy of Clark Hamilton

GrowGardenTomatoes

Ahhhh, Spring is coming and with it comes the planning of our first garden.  We purchased our home on the lake in Missouri about 5 years ago.  Part of our reasoning in choosing this particular home was the amount of land with it that would lend itself to a sizable area for a vegetable garden.  However, upon arriving and living there a year, we quickly realized we were NOT going to be able to do that.  One of the people that lived across from us was the neighborhood cat "hoarder"....the garden idea quickly vanished.

For the next 3 years we fought to try and keep the cats out of our yard that were using it and every single flower bed as one huge litter box.  They would even get on our boat and use it along with my potted plants, front door mat, patio furniture, etc.  Needless to say by the end of year 3 I was ready to move....the smell was overwhelming and we were not even able to enjoy being outdoors let alone leave our windows open.  Flash back to last Summer when a group of us got together and decided something needed to be done.....and it was finally addressed.  A group came in and "live trapped" 28 cats and removed them.  Now, flash forward to this coming Spring, and viola a vegetable garden in the making!

Joe is always busy, I don't care what it is, where it is, what time of year it is....the man pretty much never stays still.  He is always looking for a project to keep himself busy.  He needs to look no further than the side of our yard and the list on his desk!  He is pretty much been "spoken for" for a "honey do" list that would make any grown man shudder!  Here is the start of his list:

  1.  Level area for garden, removing top layer of junk dirt.

  2.  Build raised beds for plants.

  3.  Put up fence all around garden to keep the varmits out (squirrels, deer, racoons, armadillos).

  4.  Design and install some kind of netting system to cover entire garden from on top of fencing.

  5.  Build a 2 stage, contained compost bin.

  6.  Build a compost "barrel" that can be turned as the stage 3 compost unit for final composting of organic materials.

  7.  Run new underground water line from lake up to the garden area (and that's a LONG way up).

  8.  Purchase and install irrigation pump down on the dock for irrigation line.

  9.  Order truck-load of dirt to fill beds and "git er done".

So, hurry up Spring, he has lots to do and we can hardly wait to get going!