Birth of a Garden

Happy Saturday!  I just got my lazy arse out of bed.  Almost a record sleep in for me.  8:30 am.  10 hours of overtime yesterday must have done it.  Not used to being at work on a Friday.
I will enjoy the fat paycheck though.  Or she will, is what I should say.
So now that May is here, it's time to bring on the fun stuff and to me fun stuff is gardening and yard work.  Lots of it.  I stopped yesterday after work and picked up my tomato plants.  I have some heirlooms in the garden this year.  Among them are the likes of "Mortgage Lifter", which grows 4 lb tomatoes, "Italian Tree", which grows 10 feet tall and can yield up to 90 lbs of tomatoes, "Cherry Ice", a cherry tomato that is white when ripe, "New Yorker", "Brandywine" and a few more.    Then I picked up 6 "Roma" plants that I will grow strictly for canning purposes.  I may pick up a few more of those as they are a determinate variety and I can stuff them in limited space.  They are great for canning.  All of these were grown at a local nursery and have a great start on the growing season.  The main stalks are already as big around as a pencil and they have sprouted their second and third sets of leaves.  Today I will stick them in the garden.
I'm sure you have seen some of these pics but I want to start from the beginning.
The birth of my garden.

The first thing you do when you buy a house in mid summer is to stare at the spot that will become your garden.  This will drive you nuts for the next 10 months.

This helps with not going completely insane!

Next thing to do is turn over the sod before the ground freezes for the winter.

This helps a lot when turning over the sod.

Then wait all winter.  Drawing pictures of how your garden will look.  Making plans for a garden building, making plans to trench  for a water pipe so you don't have to run hoses all the time.

Finally spring arrives and you can properly rototill the garden

Now you have to fence it to keep the pesky critters out like rabbits, woodchucks and your own two dogs.

Of course you have to build your planter boxes.  Lots of them.  Don't be shy.  Use your tractor and wagon to haul them out to the garden.

Then all you have to do is put them in the garden, finish your fence and build a 64 foot long wall made up entirely out of split pieces of firewood.

Add a cucumber and bean trellis and then wait until the last possible danger of frost has passed and start planting.  Oh and while your waiting to plant you might want to build yourself a 7 spot herb garden.  Here is mine in process.  there will be another just like this one and they will be connected by a floating "bridge" of a planting bed.  Sided with 1x6 and stained.  It will keep my herbs contained and easily accessible.

I will sit right here and sip on  margaritas all summer and watch it grow!

Stay tuned as I begin the actual planting today or tomorrow.  I need to get a load of topsoil first and with all the rain we had the last couple days they might not be loading it at the landscape yard.
Happy Gardening,
-Bushman