Mini Orchard and Garden Plans...Version 1.2

It was a crazy-beautiful afternoon today. When Will and Kayla came over to play, Alice asked if they could go outside. She didn't have to ask me twice :) We pulled out the riding toys and everything else outdoorsy I could grab from the garage. Then I enlisted Kristin's help in marking out where each aspect of my new garden and orchard would go. Mwah ha ha haaaaaaa!

The kids were running around in imaginary play. A new scenario I hadn't witnessed before. They were mean witches casting spells and eating helpless victims. Our backyard neighbor was eventually toasted to a crisp and added to worm soup, despite her best efforts to cast protective spells, use magic wands of her own, and offer exciting distractions (i.e. dinosaur bones and dinosaur eggs from her own garden). These mean witches were ruthless. They rode around on a broom dragon and cackled like maniacs. My poor neighbor never stood a chance.

Robert spent most of his time begging to be held or looking for a Siamese cat that had peeked out of the bushes.

I did eventually get the orchard and garden laid out in situ (i.e. I spray painted place markers onto the grass and laid out the raised bed frames). The dream seemed disappointingly small in real life :( I stood back a bit and saw, however, that the large oak on the north end of our property was not as bushy as I had planned. I *could* stretch the three garden beds another 4 FEET each. Huzzah! That adds another 48 sq ft to my vegetable gardens, bringing the total to 304 sq ft. A sizeable sum, to be sure. The largest vegetable garden I've managed so far is 144 sq ft, so I'm officially in over my head and I *like* it that way (happy dance). Now there's room for ephemeral perennials like rhubarb and asparagus...so perfect in early spring when one craves something fresh.

Now I get to take a shovel to the sod! Happy, happy day. It's hard to plan a garden party when the weather is unpredictable. I hope my shovel-wielding friends don't need too much advanced notice :) My backyard neighbor did offer us the use of his tiller/wheelbarrow and such...I hope he can forgive us of his wife's untimely and gruesome death.