What I Have to Show For Covid

On August 16 I weed whacked what was left of my summer vegetable garden after the bunnies and the deer had turned it into their personal smorgasbord. For the past 25 years I have fought with wildlife, droughts and bad soil over my vegetable garden. I decided I had enough and wanted to control my own space.

I spent the next month scouring Pintrest and Fine Gardening and talking to friends, like Christiania who had put in raised beds this years. I came up with a plan. It was going to be hard, expensive but in the end beautiful. I decided most of the work I could do myself. I knew I needed help with the fence because it needed four hands so I talked to a friend from Church and he said he could help with that.

I went to work. Clearing the ground, buying the blocks, building the retaining wall which was over forty linear feet four feet high. When a section of wall fell In because I had not backfilled it fast enough I did not get discouraged. I had too much in this project. I had to keep moving forward.

I started the building on September 13 and finished today, November 16. I worked almost every non-rainy day. I laid 512 twenty one pound bricks, I shoveled 28 yards of clay as my fill, with the help of David we built a 15 by 25 foot deer and bunny proof enclosure, I built 11 cedar raised beds, I built an underground irrigation system to each bed, I filled those beds with six yards of garden soil, I covered all the garden pathways with card board and four inches of pine bark nuggets. Now I can rest until spring.

Of course there will be tree branches to trim so sun hits the right places and plants diagrams to draw and seeds to start. I wait with baited breath to see if my output improves.