Getting into the Ground

While we finish up the design phase of our architectural journey and await the move into construction documents (which means we can FINALLY get our construction loan!!), John and I have been feeling antsy. With the interior demo being taken just about as far as we can take it, we waffle back and forth between wanting to get our hands into the soil to start our garden and wanting to wait until the impending days of Lazy Fox as a construction site will be over. Most of the time this translates into cutting grass on the tractor, using the weed whacker, straightening the contents of Ye Olde Shoppe, or just standing around drinking beer and Mike's Hard while we dream about the future . . . and maybe a few other things.

Father's Day Mayhem

A Typical Tuesday

 
Last fall we stumbled upon an amazing end of the season sale at Gulley's Greenhouse. We scored fruit and other trees, shrubs, and a few other plants for ridiculously low prices (also lots of free plants we donated to Mountain Sage Community School, where I sit on the board of directors). Hardly ones to pass up a good deal, we found ourselves establishing our fledgling orchard in the southeast corner of the property. It was, perhaps, a bit premature to start the orchard, but the time felt right and so we went with it. I'm happy to say that all the trees weathered the winter just fine and are doing well as the first days of summer have come to pass.

This has given us some hope, I think. I simply cannot fathom putting down literal garden roots when my own family roots are still planted somewhere else. This has made it difficult to move toward Lazy Fox the farm; I can be one hell of a road block when I want to. But planting the trees felt so good, and their tender green leaves on slender bending limbs remind me to be flexible. Growth takes time, and moving slowly, as we need to, is the name of the game.

So last weekend when I came across free raspberry plants, it just felt right to jump at planting something again. It was a dig-your-own situation. We took the kids and the dogs, and headed to a 1960's neighborhood just south of Harmony we never even knew existed. The 90 year old woman who owned the plants told us her gardening days were over. Instead of having her son simply yank and toss the raspberry plants, she waited for people willing to dig and use them. When we showed up, shovels in hand and trailer on tow, we fit the bill. We scored about 75-100 plants and lovingly brought them back to Lazy Fox.

Our initial plan had been to keep the larger plants and line the fence, keeping the dogs from running right up to it when other dogs walk by. The other plants we'd sell for $1 each. After some discussion, we realized it'd serve us better to have an actual patch where we can access the plants from all sides. We scouted out an area that felt right, the east side of what will be the garden, and got to work.

We quickly learned what we had suspected all along: the soon to be garden is rock hard, with maybe 2 inches of "top soil." Digging up the raspberry patch by hand was out. Barter to the rescue! We traded our friends over at Cresset Farm the raspberry plants we were going to sell for use of their handheld rototiller; win win!

After weed whacking, watering, rototilling, amending the soil, planting, and dodging a classic Colorado June hailstorm, we had all the plants in the ground. We're not sure how many will take, and we have plans to start amending the rest of the soil now for the garden next summer. But it felt so good to actually DO something on the property. Here's to more DOING!

This picture is so large it won't center, but here, size matters. Ella pre-watering the spot for the raspberry patch.