Breaking Ground

Because one is too many and several are not enough....

I decided to have two garden plots; one at the community garden across the street and the other in the side yard of my home.  This is a view of my side yard at 5 pm today;

You can't see it, but I have staked off a 12' X 10" area to turn into a little cut greens bed.  But first, I had to get rid of the sod.  My property is up on a small hill with narrow, stone steps that lead you down to the road.  I had considered borrowing a friends tiller, but didn't want to think about how to get it up here.  So, I went at it with a shovel.

I took the sod out in strips, but was sure not to waste the already existing organic matter by getting down on my knees and knocking the dirt of the clods.

I have to tell you, when I was thinking the project into reality, I was a bit nervous.  I had never really done this before and all I heard about it, was that it was extremely labor intensive and back breaking.

Well, I am happy to say;

I didn't die, nor did I break my back!

It took about 2 hours to remove all the sod and I spent another half hour adding two cubic feet of compost, turning the soil and leveling everything off.

And now - I have this beautiful view of this beautiful dirt out my bedroom window!