Mulch Ado About Nothing

Will and I decided to plant a garden this year. The soil in our area is horrible and we have very little non-shady area to work with, so we elected to go with raised beds. Will and I (read as me doing all the work and trying to occupy a 5-year old and not get either of us injured) build three large wooden gardens and four smaller ones. That was the easy part.

When it was time to get soil, that was another ball game. We live in the country, sort of. Defiantly to far away for delivery to be cheap. Steve was also working 12-hour days seven days a week, so his truck wasn't an option. I spent two weeks calling around and getting prices on soil and delivery fees.

Steve finally was able to let me have the truck on a Saturday. So, Friday, Will and I (see earlier note) added wooden sides to our small trailer to increase the amount of garden soil/mulch we could carry. Steve took off and drove us out to load it up. We ended up with four square yards of soil.

The day we purchased the soil I filled two of the larger garden areas. The next day two more. The rest the following. I'd like to interject here the fact that the soil was wet and heavy and had to be shoveled with a pitch fork into a wheelbarrow with a fast leak. We are talking really fast; I had less than 30 minutes before I had to air up the tire again. Believe me, you do not want to get caught with your tire down.

It rained just as I finished filling my garden beds and I had a few days off. Then I filled up three small flower beds in the back yard. The following day a HUGE flower bed the length of half my house. Then it rained.

This week, we managed to hook up the lawn trailer to the riding lawn mower and use it to haul dirt. I used the remaining dirt to level out the worse dips in the back yard.

Nothing earth shaking, I just moved dirt. But for a middle age woman who is a little fluffy, and a lot inactive, looking at that empty trailer and realizing that, by my self, I shoveled out and transported four cubic yards of mulch was priceless.

Well, it actually cost $65. But who's counting.