I've never been known to possess any skill at growing plants of any variety, but I'm trying new things and it helps that the garden plot was already in the backyard from the previous owner. We moved into our house last August. Well, I moved in last August. Ryan brought some of his things to the house, but didn't live here until after our wedding in January. As the weather turned warmer this season Ryan and I have spent many Saturdays outdoors pulling up weeds, small trees, unwanted vines, shrubs, bushes. You name it, we've uprooted it from the flowerbed. We've actually come to enjoy this part of the weekend; working together to tame the wild flowerbeds. The previous owner planted heaps of leafy, green plants, herbs, flowers and vines, which overran much of the flowerbed by the time we could get to them. However, she also had a garden plot in the back corner of the yard where she planted eggplant and tomatoes. So, this spring and summer we have our work cut out for us.
All those years of hot, sticky band camps which left you sporting awkward tan lines and an impressive lung capacity made the once anti-sweat girl not mind it quite so much. I don't like to sweat if I'm just sitting outside, which we all know is inevitable this time of year in the South; I prefer for my sweat to be the product of my work. There's something to be said for sweating while working. I'm new to the gardening, planting vegetables, flowers or herbs scene. You're talking to someone who once managed to kill a small succulent plant. One of the most resilient types of plants that thrive in harsh environments with little to no water and I was able to find a way to kill it (accidentally, of course). Nevertheless, I wanted to try my hand at growing something. Our project since the spring has been to (slowly) clear out the overgrown mess in the flowerbeds and garden to plant our own flowers and vegetables.
The front of our house has, as many do these days, holly bushes at every corner and in-between. Some are bigger than others but they're all there. Between the holly bushes are smaller shrubs, which have seen better days, and monkey grass. Ever since my family lived at a home covered in holly bushes during our brief stay in Huntsville, Alabama I've held a dislike for them, primarily because of the stickers on their beautiful, deceiving green leaves. We cut down one of our holly bushes as much of the plant was already dead, and I sighed in relief at seeing the brick of the house behind it exposed. Bushes are one of those flowerbed items where a little goes a long way. You don't want to cover up the entire front of your house with bushes and shrubs. I like to be able to see the house itself, rather than just the overgrown holly bushes.
In order to get our ready-made garden plot prepared for planting, my sister and brother-in-law came to the house with their tiller. My talented, green-thumbed brother-in-law, Matt, graciously tilled the garden for us and gave us some pointers on how to plant certain vegetables. As he and Ryan were hoeing up the remaining weeds, Matt, said in surprise, "Uh-oh." We all turned to see part of an orange cable sticking up out of the ground. Ryan knew immediately that was our internet cable that was buried right underneath the garden, apparently, not deep enough. For a moment we stood there in a little disbelief, but in situations like that there's really nothing you can do except laugh.
After all the tilling and preparing the soil was done and one spider scared the living daylights out of me, Ryan and I jumped in the car and drove to Lowe's. On the way, he called our internet provider and arranged to have someone come out to assess/fix the internet cable the following Tuesday. Only about 3 days elapsed without Netflix on the big-screen in the house and it still felt like a month. You can insert your own comment on our dependency to technology and the internet here. At Lowe's we picked up seeds to plant, a flower, and a few other essentials for gardening.
On the left is the finished watered, garden, where we planted cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, zucchini, squash and banana peppers. The sole surviving banana pepper plant (center) we bought several weeks ago and kept indoors at first because the garden wasn't ready for planting. Our cats, Custard and Pumpkin, thought it was a toy and something to chew on, so eventually it had to be planted in a cleared flowerbed outside. One evening we went outside to water said banana pepper plants (there were 4 originally) and to our surprise three of them had been eaten down to nothing by our friendly, neighborhood cats. On the right, are the flowers we bought. A couple of days later I also planted some flower seeds, so we'll have to see what happens with those.
There are two morals to this story:
1. Always, ALWAYS know where your internet cable is buried in the yard.
2. Don't be afraid to try something new. You'll likely encounter some obstacles along the way, but just remember to laugh.
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