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!