Cheep Labor

This afternoon I hit the Tri-fecta! The Princess is gone with The Boss Lady, The Talker is out running around with a friend and it is a beautiful day out in the backyard.

Gardening this time of year is mainly about the hard work of getting everything ready. The easy part comes later, when the veggies and fruit are ready to be picked and enjoyed. But I think this is still my favorite time of the gardening cycle. The hard work hasn't killed me yet and the bare patch of soil seems to hold tons of potential right now. And then of course, there is the garden center. All of those seed packets with the nice, pretty, monster-sized veggies pictured on the packets really makes me want to increase my garden space. Please remind me of this post later in the summer, when everything has dried up and we haven't seen rain in a few months.

This past fall I dumped my garden tiller. I was tired of tending to it before every garden season and only using it for a few hours a year. It went away quickly on the local Free-cycle list. Without the tiller I faced a chore that I have not attempted in about 10 years, turning the soil with a garden fork.

After an hour of work I am almost done with that bit of fun. And I am sure I will feel it tomorrow! But this year I had some unexpected help once the earthworms started popping up in the newly turned garden soil, the chickens.

It took one wiggling worm to draw all three birds into the garden. I was tired 30 minutes ago, but the chickens don't seem to show any sign of slowing down. With all of the chicken scratching and digging in the garden, some of the biggest dirt clods should be broken down soon, saving me some time with the hoe and garden rake.