the gardening diaries: breaking up the dirt

This past week I have been busy with getting the plot ready and the dirt broken up for the rows.  Mr. Randy has been doing all the "tractoring" and I've been doing all the "supervising" haha!  Last Saturday I mowed the spot where I wanted to put the garden.  It was out in the field where the horses lived for years and the grass is wonderful and gorgeous and wait, why are we digging some of it up?  Oh yeah, for a garden!  I got the grass mowed and on Monday Mr. Randy and I set about to getting rid of as much grass as we could before he used the tractor to break ground.  Since we got a late start on burning, we just raked as much of the grass clippings as we could and burned those little piles.  For future reference: don't do this again.

After the smoked cleared he used the tractor to make the first pass over the ground.  The discs barely went into the ground it was so hard and covered with grass.  Then the fuel line came loose and he stopped so it could be fixed.  After about twenty minutes or so, Kendall got the fuel line to go back on while Mr. Randy and I drank some much needed water!  He started the tractor back up and we worked out there until dark.  

On Tuesday, Michael and Diane came over to get some of the grass to put in their yard.  We loaded down their truck with so much of the sod and still barely put a dent in it!  Apparently, in the winter I should have taken care of the grass by either burning it or I could have covered it to kill it.  I don't want grass in my garden and really should have done this first but oh well, next time I will start sooner.  While Mr. Randy continued to break up the dirt I spent that time pulling clump after clump of grass out of the plot.  It seemed as if I pulled out one clump of grass and then two more would appear!  I still have a good bit there but I'm not fretting too much!  I think my favorite part is how good the dirt smelled!  Even Sally liked playing in the dirt :)

I am so excited doing all of this, the hard work and the preparation of the ground.  It is my first time to do any gardening like this!  In the past I have just kinda done it halfway.  But this.  This is a big deal to me!  I've got lots of plans and really they just keep multiplying.  One idea leads to five others and those lead to more!  There's so much I want to do and so much I can do it's hard to keep it all straight.  Right now, though, I am focused on getting everything ready to plant!