In the fall of 2018 Art and I used old picket fence sections that we brought up from the lake house and enclosed a large area in which to garden with the idea we would buy additional all metal boxes.  Instead we decided to make our own custom boxes that were three feet high when we were finished so there was less bending over to care for the plants as we aged.

We read about a process called hugelkultur where you bury logs, paper, branches, etc. to decompose under the soil and add nutrients to the soil.  We decided to fill each box about one-third with logs, cardboard, branches, etc. and then brought in countless truckloads of top soil and filled each box.  It was killer work and took us about a month to complete.  When finished we had a 24′ x 48′ garden with 14 grow boxes and four potato towers. 

It was a bountiful garden with more produce than we could use but we lost tons of produce to pests (insects and squirrels).  It was so very frustrating.  We put so much time, effort and money into the garden, but made the decision when we were on our honeymoon in October not to garden this year. It was consuming all of our time and we felt tied to the house. We wanted to spend our time on day trips and stay-cations.  Unfortunately those special times were not to be.   I learned too late that there isn’t always a tomorrow with those we love.  I couldn’t face even going in the garden after Art’s death, so it was neglected and the weeds soon overtook it.

Over the past couple of weeks I have finally been able to get the mounds weeded.  It was an adventure as I encountered a king snake a couple of times in the tall weeds, discovered a nest of lizard or snake eggs in one mound, numerous toads and a gazillion earth worms (they loved the top soil and hugelkultur).  After seeing the snake the second time I was very nervous when I got to that section of the garden and began pulling weeds.  I poked around with my shovel to try to scare anything that might be hiding there away.  In the midst of all of this I suddenly felt a vibration on my left wrist and jumped back thinking for sure the snake had touched my arm.  As my heart was beating out of my chest I looked at my wrist and realized that my fitness tracker was vibrating to let me know I had reached 10,000 steps!  I nearly had a heart attack from my fitness tracker!

I have all but two of the mounds dug up and the logs moved over to an area where they can dry out for the fire pit. I had my 10,000 steps in by 11 a.m. today and am just under 20,000 steps for the day. You would think I would be stick thin….not the case, but the activity is doing great things for my blood pressure and blood sugar.  I’m planning to get out early in the morning before it gets too hot and break down the remaining two mounds.

I have been spreading the dirt around the old garden area and plan to just let the grass grow there so all I have to do is mow it. Once I get the last two mounds cleared of logs and branches and get the dirt spread, I’ll go over all of with with my “weed weasel” that breaks up clods and rake and smooth it all.

I’m doing all of my gardening this year in containers around the house, in flower beds and on my back deck. I have set up a timed watering system for the containers, so I just have to fertilize and take care of bugs as the need arises.

I’m really looking forward to getting the yard a lot easier to maintain so I only have to do mowing (which I love), some weed eating, and a bit of pruning.

But as I was breaking things down today with only two mounds left, I felt kind of sad…all that work, the time and effort, and here I was tearing it down.  The memories of Art going into the woods to get fallen trees and sawing them up with the chain saw; us building the grow boxes; shoveling many, many truck loads of dirt (each box took about 1 1/2 pickup truck loads of dirt); putting up the fence; building the gates.  I felt like I was betraying Art by tearing this apart, even though we had made the decision together to do so.

As I was caught up in the sadness while I shoveled dirt and pried logs out from under huge mounds of dirt, I suddenly felt Art was with me.  I felt like he was glad I was doing this in spite of all of our efforts to create the garden. I felt him telling me to find time for things I have always wanted to do… to write, to learn to paint, to sew, to learn to play piano, have time to take care of my health and enjoy friends and family (when the pandemic is over).

I hate the heat and don’t enjoy working in it, so it will be nice to get things simplified. Art and I were going to sell this place and move near West Jefferson in the mountains after we got back from our honeymoon.  I kind of wish we had made that move happen so I would be away from this intense heat and get to enjoy snow in the winter, but I’m so grateful to be 15 minutes from my youngest daughter, her husband and my grandkids. They have been such a blessing. They ALWAYS offer to help me with projects, but I have a tough time accepting help and I think it is good for me to accomplish these things on my own at times. It keeps me active.

I’m finally feeling pretty good about this detour I’m taking in life.  I wish my sweetheart were with me on this new adventure, but I’m looking forward to creating more joy in every day on Joyeful Acres.