Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

A Surprise for Mr Mud

A month ago, Erik built this for my birthday:

This time, he was gone for three weeks paying a visit to WA. I wanted to do something to surprise him. My eyes set on the vegetable garden. It grew very well when we moved in, but it had some plants that I would not use in my cooking, such as jalapeno, hot chili pepper, etc.  Gradually, I stopped going into the garden. It had been neglected for over two years and had become an eye sore.

When he left for his trip, the garden looked like this:

He pulled in at night. Next morning when he looked out the window and he saw this:

He was surprised. And he was even more surprised to hear that I didn’t hire anybody (I didn’t know how) for this make over.

I admit I wanted to give up half way. It was hard work. I took three days off after the Death Ride. It turned out the effort involved in this project was way more than what it took to complete the Death Ride in under 10 hours. But I am happy about the outcome. It still needs some more work and I am waiting for the right time to grow more vegetables (that I like to cook). But I don’t think I’ll let it go wild again now that I’ve put so much effort into it.

I learned the process by watching some youtube video. Considering it’s a low traffic area, I skipped the steps to level the ground. I just lay down the landscaping fabric, lay the bricks, and then fill the gaps with sand. At any one time, I could only pull about ten bricks close to the garden (not even all the way to the garden gate), and I would carry two bricks by hand to the work site and lay them down. Not very efficient, so it’s amazing that I even made it this far. Well, I’m a mudworm and inch by inch, I know I can get there.

2 Responses

  1. Alison Chaikenon 21 Jul 2009 at 10:17 pm

    In your cooler, shadier microclimate, I would try to grow greens and herbs. Any kind of lettuce or cabbage family plant should do well. Cilantro, tarragon, basil will all be very happy. If you plant something from the mint family, be sure to put it in a pot in the ground!

  2. mudwormon 22 Jul 2009 at 8:30 am

    About mint, I learned it the hard way. I pulled a mint plant from a box. OMG, roots everywhere. They sure run wild!