Garden Update: Rocks and Squash

In an earlier blog entry we noted that our garden was somewhat lacking. Everything was slow to grow and it was looking like a low yield year.

We spoke to soon.

Our garden has grown almost out of control this past month. We have 11 very full tomatoes plants that are days away from turning red. Our squash went from non-existent to absolutely everywhere. Averaging one to two yellow/green squashes a day with spaghetti and butternut squashes on the way. The beans, basil, and lettuce have also been keeping us well supplied.

We also took advantage of some very generous friends and did a long over-due landscaping project. We have had this 15’x 15’ eye-sore of lava rock and weeds next to our garden since we moved in. I tried more than a few times to dig it out myself and clean it up with almost no success. But thanks to our good friends Matt, Jeff, and Joel, we were able to dig up all the lava rock, remove 5” inches of dirt and put in 5 tons of new, nice river rock. It was a lot of work put in by some good people. It was also the start of the “work party” concept dreamed up by Matt. Invite lots of friends over and put them to work in exchange for BBQ and of course returning the favor at their house when they need a hand. This is working out well so far.

This is by definition what it means to be in over ones head

Suckers, er, I mean friends helping out in the lava pit

This was not easy work on a 90+ degree day

As per my plan, I did none of the work and got all of the credit

I don’t know how I got it in my head that rock would be easy to move around