This week X-man and I got the garden beds going. Instead of letting him pick what went into them, I chose things I knew 1) we'd eat and 2) I've actually had success growing before. I also moved around some things that didn't work to try in new places.
For example, last year X-man wanted corn in his garden which is shaped like a whale in the front yard. We had someone come and till and amend the soil, but it's still not great. His corn grew 1' tall. We left the stunted ears for the bunnies and moved on. This year, I moved the corn into the raised beds, which have nothing but good top soil and mushroom compost. I'm betting we get a better response there. I also put hollyhock and sunflowers in X-man's garden.
What did grow well in the crap soil? All kinds of peppers and cherry tomatoes. I'm also trying out strawberries and cilantro. So we'll see how those go. In the raised beds, I have four different kinds of onions, broccoli, brussel sprouts, potatoes, big tomatoes and spinach.
Can you tell that we eat a lot of salsa?
I have a few more pepper plants to purchase, as well as one more tomato plant and tomato cage. I'm also going to put in three blueberry bushes in the backyard and replace the one in the front yard that got eaten by the bunnies. Someone remind me in September to chicken wire those bushes to prevent wintertime bunny chow down. The good news is the raspberry bush is growing like crazy.
Once everything is in, it'll be time to call for the big dump of mulch. Every year I swear I'm going to replace it with some kind of heavy rock. But the truth is I have a four year old, and somewhere inside my head is a 8mm filmstrip of my child heaving a rock either at me or at my glass french doors...
Why invite the pain? Wood chips don't usually break down doors or send Mommy to the hospital. Maybe when he's 12, I'll rethink the mulch.
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