2 Days to recover!

When preparing for a battle that you know at the onset will be hard won, it helps to be prepared both mentally and physically for the long haul. Starting out with a huge second breakfast of Mama's Mound of Love, I suited up (overalls, pink bandana, wellies)  gathered up my implements of weed destruction, and my water cauldron...I think I kissed the children, grabbed my husbands----, (sorry I digress, he has been working out. WOWIE! Go honey!) bade them all a fond good day and headed out into the morning sun to met out some farm justice.

After what seemed like 10 hours of non stop hacking and chopping, endless spider encounters, 4 fire ant  outbursts and one snake skin, which Riley immediately confiscated. (He now has a blue treasure pot for all the cool stuff I dig up) I came across a particularly challenging root. This thing went on forever, all the way from the back fence bed to the middle of sweet potato heaven. I had to summon the power of Greyskull to pull this thing. Funny, in a moment of clarity, just I a reached for my all powerful attack hacker, something told me, "Dirtgirl...um you might want to pause for a moment of reflection". A little easier said than done my friends, I was in the Zone!

My second breakfast was kicking in, hydration levels were optimum, eye and nasal passages were within the acceptable limits for dirt & debris, just humming along when I realized this root didn't have any runners, puzzling. It was a bit thick to be so close to the surface. Usually one of these bad boys is down a few more inches....You know if you wipe the dirt off and it's sleek, black and shiny, it just may be your neighbor's cable wire.

Have you seen any of those signs lately, "Call Before You Dig" I need their number....ummm, where's my cell phone??

After the cable epiphany, it was returned and tucked all snug into its own dirt bed.  Bummer, I forget that I live in the middle of suburbia and just can't dig where I feel like. ((pause)) OK, redirecting the pity pout, moving on...

I have very good news. I slayed the Wildside dragon! That horrible mess fought long and hard. I had thoughts at more than a few moments that I'd have to stop, regroup and try again next weekend. I was getting very tired, the towel was begging to be thrown in. My ass anchors were dragging....(oh, some explaining is due. I had major "renovative" surgery last May in my lower GI & abdomen which required internal slings and anchors. There are 2 attached to my tail bone which pull a bit if I over do. I way over did this day!)(Sorry if this was TMI, but context is helpful) (Ok, Ok, this is why my garden reverted back to it's prehistoric self. I was out of the garden for 5 months. No bending, no lifting, no sitting, no pulling, no pushing, no Garden Zen only garden angst.

I watched the wilderness overtake my carefully planned out beds, weeds laughed at me, non beneficial bugs gave me the finger and taunted me. Plants withered in front of me like my soul. The state of chaos that ensued was devastating to the fabric of my being. There was no joy out there. No wonder words like banshee and shirl were being used to describe me. I was as big of a mess as my garden. A big piece of me was missing or maybe the steady diet of dirt.

However, with the help, cheers and general "We can do this mom" from Riley, I kicked the Wildside's weedy butt. Everything within the garden fence was pulled down to the dirt. The other side....is another story. Don't get me started on the Bougainvillea...that's the husband's joyful job. He's been chomping at the bit to take a chain saw to that spiky beauty for years!

My manicure from last week is shot, 2 nails snapped off somewhere along the way and dirt is even deeper into the cuticles. I'm feeling every mucle in my body...and some of them don't feel so nice. Aaaaahhhh, Farm Zen at last!


(No cable was lost or harmed by this weekends farming activites)

4 1/2 Hours Later.....

Wow! I'm in rough shape, but oohhhh did I made some progress today! I've been dreading, dreading I tell you starting the "Big Rip" out of the Wildside of the garden. I've pruned and cut back, pulled and yanked most of the way around that section this week (thank you State of Florida for the paid week off!) I could put it off no longer.

During the course of the day while I was procrastinating, the boys were hacking and slashing the ferocious verge with sticks they named like "Death-a-nator and "Vanguard", the Wildside was under attack! It seems that after more than a few smacks in the face & arms by some unruly tall weeds, the boys had had enough - it was time, Mama had to avenge them!

Armed with my ancient rake, my favorite weed hacker, and my little yellow chair I set my sights on total annihilation of the Wildside. Well, I was able to make a huge dent in the mess. (I tend to be a bit out of sync with physical, time & space capabilities)  We did however make quite a few discoveries that took precedence over finishing up.

For starters, we found a baby snake, which Riley promptly named Snakey. We had to abandon that section so we didn't "chop him to bits" as Riley put it. How can look into that face and not agree? Next came the flat frog. No legal name, but I guess Flat Frog will do. Jake was obsessed with getting him to hop, so he devised a Frisbee filled with sand-shovel contraption as a way to get him relocated to a new home. Great, another section on the no hacking list for today, but wait there's more!

I had just pulled a vine up when Riley screamed "Sweet potatoes!!!" I had about 9 sweet potato plants last spring that went a bit, well they took over the whole middle section of the garden and sent out long tendrils to the rest. We pulled out several buckets of the beautiful orange tubers before Thanksgiving, yum! I thought that would be the end of them, done. Nope. When I pulled the wilty mess of a vine, out popped several small-ish sweet potatoes! This led to about an hour of digging and a basket of very little sweet potatoes. Riley had found his Nirvana! With his blue basket tucked under his arm, he declared that he was eating them for breakfast!

My dear youngest son, he's 24 days shy of 5 years old and a mini me. Same freckles, same funny faces and yes, the hand on hip smack talk of his mother. Yep, I claim responsibility for this one (sorry honey about the Hello Kitty obsession too). He wants to eat healthy breakfasts,so I made him 2 scrambled eggs with chopped up sweet potatoes....not dreaming he'd like it...but he does! So now with the new crop of rogue taters, I've got a new menu item.

We're going to have sweet potatoes forever I feel, I've come to a place of acceptance. They will be the bonus underneath the harvest.  Let me know if you want some.

Pictures will be up soon, so you can follow the progress, the bounty & the pitfalls of our Wildside adventures!

It's a Brand New Year!

So, where did Wildside come from? Well, I was sitting knee deep in every kind of weed and non beneficial insect on the "nice" side of the garden, gazing, no actually looking real hard and despairingly at the wild looking side of the plot....when I thought that's a great name for what I've got going on here. A garden needs a proper name...but oh! A farm is what I'm aiming for...so Wildside Farm it is!

It's interesting to me that by just putting a name to something makes it more tangible, more real and I do have a real mess to clean up before any plants or animals come to live here. Works in progress numbers 3-10.

 I have visions of grandeur, (honey, please blink your eyes a bit and skip the next few lines, ok- thanks!) a beautiful multi-compartment compost pile, fruits & veggie plants from fence to fence, a worm pit, rabbit hutches, "cats" code name for chickens, "dog" code name for goats....I do live in a huge subdivision smack in the middle of Theme Park Central...I could get away with it......but, a few obstacles must be overcome first namely.....

My family is amazing! I have 4 strong backed men in my home and a great dog. The dog is head of squirrel security, which in my opinion has been a little lacking of late, more on that later. My boys...(sigh) the smaller versions of my husband, love to damage my calm in the garden mostly because they love to be in there, all the time, fighting dragons, saving the planet from invaders, digging mystery holes for me to trip in. Boy stuff.  Which is great, I need to be more diligent in giving them guidance and direction...my farm zen must last more than 5 minutes.  Work in progress number 2.

My husband has the heavy burden of keeping me focused, hydrated and fed throughout the course of my forays into the backyard. He also has the bummer of reigning me in. (remember the vision of grandeur...BIG job for him...I get cranky & I pout) So Work in Progress Number 1 ....is me. Keep it simple and the plants will come. Keep it simple,  Farm Zen will come, Keep it simple. don't break the bank... a little at a time. Yeah right! All the seed catalogs are coming in.......