Blueberries, Raspberries, and Compost-- Oh My!

Our computer was on the fritz this week so, since I was unable to do any blogging, I did the next best thing: I dug.  And dug and dug and dug.  

My intentions, prior to all of this digging, were simply to plant a few flowers and

amend my flower beds and vegetable garden.  My soil is very heavy.  It's hard-packed clay and it will break your back, and your spirit, if you let it.  But I don't.  I just curse it and add more compost.  This method seems to have worked fairly well for me, though, and over the last few years, the flower beds have become a little easier to dig and work in.  Creating a new planting area, however, is a whole different story.

So when my sweet friend, Addie, called the other day to ask if I'd like to have some raspberry plants, I thought hard about my answer.  Of course, I'd love to have some raspberries of my own.  They're sweet, delicious, and they're Nora Jane's favorite fruit (not including mangoes, but we can't grow those here). Since I didn't have a planting area ready for them, however, and I wasn't in the mood for ground-breaking, my plan was to thankfully decline.  Well, she wasn't interested in my plans, and before I could pick up my phone to return her call, she was at my house with a bucket-full of transplants.  I looked from her bucket to the bags of compost lying near the flower beds and thought, sorry guys; it looks like we're going to have to do some real work.

  

Upon hearing there was ground that needed breaking, Dave headed to The Range to test out Nora Jane's new shotgun, so I headed to the shed for the shovel.  A few hours later, my six little canes were in the ground.

After school, Nora Jane decorated the border with rocks and bricks while I sat in the sun, drank a beer and thought about dinner.  I was tired, but the sun was out and it had been a good day.  After dinner, I put all the tools back into the shed and promised the remaining bags of compost they'd get tucked into the flower beds tomorrow afternoon.  But that was before I had dreams of blueberries. 

People like me should not drink coffee at night.  They probably shouldn't drink coffee at all.  It just makes us jittery, keeps us awake and fills our heads with all kinds of plans.  Plans that include adding a trellis to your back fence, laying a path inside the back gate, and growing your very own blueberries.  And since the Internet is accessible twenty-four hours a day, and from your bed via your iPad, you can dream and plan simultaneously.  So that's what I did.  I planned out a planting site, and dreamt of blueberry muffins as I drifted off to sleep.  

The next morning, after dropping Nora Jane off at school, I, again, got out the shovel.  And as predicted the ground was hard.  Harder, in fact, than I thought it should be.  Or maybe I was still tired from the digging I had done the day before.  But I kept at it, enjoyed it even, after I got into a groove.  A few hours later, under the supervision of Jack, my trusty sidekick, I was done. 

sleeping on the job

I know that despite all of my spring-time digging, I won't get much summer-time fruit, (this year) but the promise of next year is alive.  And my belly and my aching back can't wait. 

For now, today is Saturday and that means Market Day.  So after Dave went for a bike ride, Nora Jane and I went  to the Market.  She got a pot of marigolds and a little pot of lemon balm, "because it smells nice mom."  I picked up some onion starts, more spring lettuce, (mine is coming though!) TWO BLUEBERRY PLANTS

Sunshine Blue

and more rhubarb.  I think I'm obsessed with this plant.  I should probably just get my own plant.  I want to make rhubarb sauce,  rhubarb upside down cake, and almond rhubarb breakfast bars.  But those will have to wait, Dave requested another pie.

This week's is a little prettier :)

I realize that growing my own rhubarb will require another planting area, but that's the good thing about gardening.  It never ends.  There will always be another tomorrow.  A tomorrow when my body and my back are rested.  Besides, a new planting area also means asparagus--my favorite vegetable.

Keep on keeping on--

S-

P.S.  Apparently, Saturday also means Lemonade For Sale!

Nora and Meredith
of
Nora and Meredith's Orange, Lime, Lemonade Stand