Two Feet in the Dirt

So I lasted about 6 weeks with no garden. As I’ve probably mentioned, I love growing greens- kale, lettuce, arugula, raab- really anything leafy has got a special place in my heart. The kale and cabbage from our garden in Pennsylvania lasted for a of couple weeks after our move, but once those ran out, I knew I’d only last so long before having to grow more of my own. It’s tough to find locally grown greens in the heat of summer and even the ones I did find just weren’t the same as eating what I grew myself, so I guess putting in a garden so quickly isn’t much of a surprise! And it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Over the past year, my son Caleb has become more and more able to help in the garden, but it has always been a lot of watching him and only a little getting actual work done. Setting up a garden bed turned out to be the perfect job for a 2-year-old. There was absolutely no concern about him stepping on plants since all the plants in there were ones that we wanted to get rid of. He had a great time transporting grass and weeds (one leaf at a time!) from the bed to the wheelbarrow. I had a ball working with him and am so excited to have food in the ground again. In fact, the arugula and broccoli raab (both in the fast-sprouting brassica family) have already pushed their first leaves above the ground in just two days!

We were lucky to move to a property that did have a modest amount of plants already here. There are two young dogwoods on either side of the gate from our garage and a lovely lilac bush next to the house. In addition, we uncovered some mint and a large oregano plant at the back of the yard next to the new vegetable bed. Even if it’s just herbs, it’s still a nice feeling to know that you can walk out your back door and grab something fresh to add into a meal. Mike’s biggest complaint about West Virginia so far is the plethora of bugs and last week the mint plant attracted it’s own unique swarm of Digger (or Blue-Winged) Wasps. The mint flowers were absolutely covered in them, which, along with the wasps’ beautiful iridescent blue wings and orange and yellow markings, was nothing if not eye-catching.