A Summer Garden

Spring has sprung in the rolling hills of Central Pennsylvania. I spent my entire weekend out in the yard, preparing for all the big plans I have for this summer.

To begin, I dug a hole that was intended to be large but turned out quite small. It is my intention to gradually fill this hole with my organic food waste so I may turn it into the beautiful black soil I discovered underneath a large pile of leaves next to the house. A project that I anticipated taking an hour turned into three. The first part was easy, digging the grass out in clumps. The six inches below that was easy, lifting solid shovels of dirt. Then I hit the layer of rocks. I spent way too much time leveraging fist sized stones out of the ground. To make matters worse, the nice rich soil turned to yellow clay. It was hot out, the shovel was getting heavy, the rocks seemed to get bigger, the clay more dense. I would have like to dig another half foot down, but I am happy with my organic compost hole.

After digging, I went up on the deck and swept the leaves out of all the corners and crevices. A nice little five minute project, and nothing too special. I noticed when I swept the leaves off the deck, there was a huge piling of leaves all around the deck and house. My original plan was to leave them and allow them to decompose and mulch the lawn naturally. But this is not Utah, and things don't dry up and break apart in a matter of days. The leaves were beginning to kill the grass, so I decided to pull out the rake and go to. Plan B was to take all the leaves and put them in the unused flower bed next to the garage so they could decompose there and make that beautiful black soil I saw them becoming. Then I realized just how many leaves were in the yard. It was three times as much as what I used to collect in Utah throughout the entire fall, and I was only halfway through the back yard. My neighbors came to the rescue with a large tarp so I could rake the leaves onto it and drag them to the curb. This is why Pennsylvania has curbside pickup.

Throughout the day, curious neighbors kept observing my work from their decks. I guess it's been a while since anyone really took care of this rental property. I'm going to dig up an 8-foot by 10-foot patch in the front yard and begin a garden next week. I love fresh food, and I love gardens. Being in the sun all day sure made me happy.



Today, I went out after breakfast to empty my peels and stems into my new compost hole. I leaned over and poured out the bucket, shaking rigorously until the last little stems left the bucket. When I straightened up, James was on the deck watching me, a big grin on his face. "I'm staring at you like a creeper," he said. Said I, "Oh, you like watching me dump the compost?" To which he replied, "I like to watch you in your natural environment." "Where, the wild?" "Yes, the wild."

I look forward to a summer of grilling and barbecuing at my deck parties, and James watching me take care of my wild. It's going to be a great summer.