Lessons from the Garden

Micah and I are total novice gardeners.  This is the third year we've tried gardening, but only the second that we've really tried in earnest.  So we pretty much always learn as we go - oftentimes the hard way.

Here are some of the things I've learned in the garden these past few days.

black gold.

The compost bin that we made a couple years ago (and by we I mean Micah) and have devotedly put our kitchen scraps and grass clippings into may look like total crap and like it's doing absolutely nothing - but somehow, just beneath the surface that on all sides looks awful, is that black gold that you hear die-hard gardeners talk about all the time.  Who knew?!  Literally, the entire thing, which looked like nothing, is filled with amazing compost for our garden.  Love it.  Instead of our food scraps sitting in a land fill creating carbon monoxide, they are now part of this amazing soil that's nourishing our growing veggies.  We're getting a new-fangled composter next week that will look less ugly and will compost much faster - thanks, Mom and Dad!

mulch uglifier.

Soil Acidifiers with Iron in them stain your gorgeous Cedar mulch!  So, the garden that once looked like this

suddenly looked like this after I diligently - I was so proud of myself - added the acidifier to the soil (which apparently is the thing to do for KS gardens). It looked like that movie Pleasantville when some people are in color and some are still in black and white. 

Lots of mixing and mulch-adding later, it's on the road back to pretty again.  I like pretty gardens - I can't help it.  It's hard enough to see our gorgeous spring garden turn into a less gorgeous summer garden filled with tomato cages (I know this is a total novice gardener thing to say)...gray mulch was not something I was willing to stand for. 

free labor.

4-year-old nephews are great mulch spreaders (and plant waterers) and super fun to have in the garden with you.

carrot overcrowding.

Turns out, they really mean what they say on the seed packets when they say to space them out.  I don't know if you know much about gardening, but this is too many carrot sprouts.  About 100X more than is appropriate or wise.  Whatevs.  I can't stop myself from doing this.  Even when I try, what starts out as a very disciplined, rule-following planting ends in me sprinkling the remainder of the packet over the top of my discipline.  I can't stand to waste the seeds, so atop they go!  It will getcha later, though, when you have to thin them out (a very tedious job) or watch them all wither and die because they're too close to grow.

accessories.

I like to dress up for activities whenever possible - it makes things more fun.  Micah and I have "bowling shirts" that we made, complete with sewn on name tags "Lottie" and "Weaverton"... we bowl about once every four years, but we look like total Bowling Rockstars when we show up in those things!

Sometimes it's just more fun to garden when you wear theme-appropriate attire.  Just sayin'.

Gardening gloves?  Well, suddenly gardening has gone chic.  I found these gloves at Home Depot and couldn't believe my eyes.  I got the ones on the right and I love them with all my heart.

(FYI, I googled these gloves and they're on Amazon for $50!!  That is NOT what I paid for them - I paid $10 at Home Depot).

Last garden accessory lesson of the day - the gardening kneeling pad is totally worth the six bucks.