The veggie garden of MY dreams

It's supposed to rain around these parts today.  However, all the clouds have managed to do today was show up and look ominous.  My plans for the day were to hide in-doors and escape the massive amount of self-imposed chores that have been added to my list of To-Do's by means of a gigantic veggie garden. The Weather Channel website promised 80% chance of rain.   But, alas, the rain is holding fast in those clouds and the only thing different I notice about the sky each time I poke my head outside to check for rain drops,  is the position of a pair of Hawks flying from tree to tree around this little valley I live in.  I wonder if they know something I don't about the weather and the fate of my little Love Apples this year.  Do you think animals have the connection to Mother Nature that would allow them to posses knowledge of the tidings of May, or June or July...?  They seem to know when to shed their coats to meet sunny weather fluff-free.  Maybe I shouldn't plant my tomatoes until all the horses at the barn look shiny and sleek.

Naw.  These babies look ready, don't you think?

And guess what?!  I grew these lovlies from SEED.  Yep.  They're pure heirloom seed wonderfulness.  It was my goal this season to figure out how to properly grow from a seed, and I went a little crazy and spent close to a hundy bones on inventory from the interesting folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.  If you have never seen their seed catalog, order it. Seriously.  It'll blow your mind.


This weekend will be the grand start to the veggie garden of our dreams (well, maybe it's just MY dream garden...somehow I think Mr. B's dream garden would involve lots of colored, stamped concrete and some potted plants...).  We have prepped our gigantic 'raised bed' garden with close to twenty yards of horse manure, procured my Mr B himself by means of a tractor and a very large dump trailer.  You should have heard the grumblings coming from him when he got home from the barn and realized the slope to our driveway was too much for the hydraulic on the truck to work properly and dump all that manure in the right place.  He had to shovel all. that. manure. himself.  TWICE.  Holy bejebus, that man must love me!  I chose to look at it as good exercise.  Ever since the Little Bird came into our lives, Mr. B has had a bit of a...how to say this nicely?... aw, frag it...a spare tire!  He's got a spare tire that won't quit!  Ha ha (insert evil cackle)! So I saw this little sang in our plan as a good thing.  But I WAS inside caring for the Little Bird while he slaved away until 9pm.

Anywho, Here's the grand 'Before' photo of our manure-enriched, rototilled, waited-too-long-to-put-mulch- down-so-the-weeds-are-growing-back, Dream Veggie Garden.

After photos to come...when I can wrangle some more slave labor out of the poor man...

xM