Although we are still technically in winter here, that doesn't stop the garden planning and work from happening. This week was all about the garden!
I borrowed Karen's truck on Friday and gathered the supplies we would need to fence in our garden. Don't get me wrong, I love deer, I especially love some deer tenderloin. Which is exactly what we would be having if I walked outside and saw all my hard work in the garden turning into a deer version of Golden Corral!
As with most things, I tried my best to shop local and avoid the big box stores. Unfortunately I found out that the local hardware is less than stocked with fencing. What they lack in wire fencing and tposts, they make up for in friendliness. But smiles and conversation won't keep Bambi and his cousins out of my garden, so I ended up at Tractor Supply.
Saturday morning, bright and early, our little dead end road was alive with the sound of tposts being drove into the ground. I'm sure our neighbors enjoyed that soundtrack as they had their weekend coffee.
Karen and I, with the help of our fluffy supervisors, worked for the better part of the day to get the perimeter fenced. We found out that our measurements were off and somehow we added an additional 5 feet to the end of the garden. But since when has more space ever been a bad thing? Thankfully I got over 100 extra feet of fencing, so we just bumped up the size of the garden, everything's bigger in Texas, right?
We ended the day with the bottom row of fencing and one trellis in place. Karen, in his infinite gardening knowledge, was convinced that the trellis was (direct quote) "To make it look all Better Homes and Gardens." I later educated him on the perks of utilizing the vertical space for vining crops such as cucumber, squash and pole beans.
Speaking of crops, I need to take a moment to thank my Instagram tribe of fellow homesteader/gardeners for the abundance of seeds that they shared with me. Day after day I would go check the mail and be met with packages full of seeds, best wishes for a fruitful garden and notes of love and encouragement. I'm so happy and excited to have a little piece of each of them growing in our first garden. Fingers crossed that I do their seeds justice and we see an amazing crop.
Speaking of those seeds here's what's on the garden plans for our first go-round;
Basil,
Bush Beans and Pole Beans,
Canteloupe,
Carrots,
Cucumber,
Zinnia,
Calendula,
Lettuce,
Loofah,
Marigolds,
Nasturtium,
Onions,
Oregano,
Parsley,
Peas,
Peppers,
Potatoes,
Rosemary,
Sage,
Spinach,
Squash,
Strawberries,
Thyme,
Tomatoes and Watermelon!
Yes, I listed them all in alphabetical order because I was going off my plans. I'm a planner, I can't help but have a scale map and list of seeds with spacing, planting dates and other information.
Sunday we were going to install the deer fencing, a 7 foot high poly netting to keep those suckers from jumping our 4 foot fence. But Karen had caught sight of my garden plans and had a dramatic moment about "all those damn trellises." So I ran out to pick up the final cattle panels so we could finish the inside set up.
Now let's take a moment to address a particular pet peeve of mine, being man-splained. Yall, I grew up a tomboy, I can drive it, park it, load it and haul it, driving a truck is a cake walk. BUT, apparently the young 18 year old who was sent to help me load the panels into the truck didn't know that. APPARENTLY, my having female anatomy automatically excludes me from having any kind of knowledge on how to load sixteen foot cattle panels into an eight foot truck bed.
I tried to be nice and explain how I wanted to load them, sitting up forming a U shape, using the sides of the bed to help hold them in place, along with straps. But Mr. Raging hormones, insisted that we should lay them flat and fold them up, then strap them down. So the strap can pop off as I'm driving and they can mousetrap slap the car behind me? Uh, no thanks Bro. He baby man-splained me one too many times and I had to tell him to sit back and just watch how Mama does it.
I made it home, without playing mousetrap with anyone, and my full sized man-splainer just shook his head as I recounted the story. Karen is well aware of my take no shit attitude when it comes to my capability. He also likes to point out that we are raising two mini-me's who will also stand firm in their knowledge when someone tries to speak over them. What can I say, I come from a long line of strong and stubborn women, I'm not about to break the streak now!
Sunday was filled with setting up trellises, and scouring junk piles for old tposts. Initially when we moved in I was not thrilled at the many various piles of junk. However when you're right in the middle of a project and you need some posts, suddenly those junk piles become gold mines. Karen and the girls helped me make rows and mix in the soil amendments.
And that was a wrap, the garden was fenced, rows made and we are ready to plant!
Other little projects were done in the in between time. Karen strung up clothes line and I made laundry detergent, no more buying expensive watered down jugs that just add to the plastic in landfills.
Sunday night was ended with some Texas baked ziti and prepping potatoes to go in the ground the following week. If this weekend was any indication, we are in for a busy spring!
B.
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