Yup.

Yup, I knew this would happen.

I'm up to my eyeballs in spring garden/farm prep and regular household stuff. The hard physical labor is actually hard and I can't do more than 2.5 hours of it...demonstrated that again today. It turns out, that the two thirds of the backyard garden beds I did first were the ones who needed that love and attention the least. This last garden bed nearest to the house is a doozy: heavy, wet clay that doesn't seem to dry out. Ever.

I'm wondering if I've ever put compost on it. I know I must have, but where did it go?

Well, I definitely needed more compost, so the littlest boys and I headed out to the Landscape Recycling Center. James was excited to help and brought his own shovel. He filled a couple of buckets while Matthew was on the lookout for tractors. Always on the lookout for tractors, that one, but he preferred to stay in the car, thank you very much. When our buckets were full of that dark, crumbly, cedar-smelling goodness, I drove the van deeper into the LRC so we could watch a wheel loader move some mulch. Then we drove home with all the windows down and the boys sticking their hands out the windows like airplanes. Well, Matthew only did it for a little while...a 40mph wind can be a bit overwhelming for a 2yo.

Digression #1
On this adventure, I learned that James remembers stuff from when he was 2 or 3 years old. He reminded me of a field trip to the fire station where one kid was right where the ambulance was going to park and his mom whisked him up and out of the way, much to the child's chagrin. I remembered it as he told me. Logan and his parents moved away 8 months ago, and I'm pretty sure that field trip happened at LEAST 6 months before that. 

While we were driving home from Ohio this weekend (an Easter trip to see friends), James reminded me that the last time we left this friends' house, he had forgotten his pizza in the fridge. That was last Thanksgiving...or was it the Thanksgiving before that? Blast this cloudy memory of mine! If I don't record it here, I'm 90% sure it will get lost forever.

Back to the present...

Then I spent the next 2.5 hours digging out clay soil, mixing it with compost, and shoveling it back into the garden bed. Only got a 4'x4' square done before I needed more than a breather. It's not cardio work, it's strength training, and mostly upper body strength at that. Not my strongest or most experienced muscle group. If only I could double dig the garden with my legs and gluts and cardio-respiratory fitness!

But this I know: I'm actually making a difference! I can almost get it as good as the soil in the other two beds. Almost. It's esentially a 50/50 blend of LRC compost and clay soil! Crazy.

Digression #2

James discovered bees going in and out of a hole in the brick exterior of our house. And bees in the kids' digging hole. And bees all over the weeds in our back lawn (violet, creeping charley, dandelions). It turns out it's a really, really interesting set of bees. Our backyard neighbor is an entymologist and he just happened to be doing a bee survey in his backyard today and discovered the kids' digging hole. He got all excited and called me on the phone (I had gone inside for lunch and quiet time by this point) to get me outside to see. 

They're a kind of mud bee. Solitary females dig a hole, lay an egg, top it with pollen, then use mud to cap off the hole. They were ALL OVER the kids' digging hole, but not laying eggs. They appeared to be collecting mud/moisture and taking it somewhere else...the brick hole on our house, for one. John was simply delighted at this discovery. Giddy, almost. It's not how these bees typically operate. Apparently several of them are sharing this cavity behind the bricks like an apartment building. He collected a couple to take home for a more precise classification (James was happy to see them go!) and filmed the bees going in and out of the brick hole for a couple minutes. 

Digression within a digression...#2a?

I love to see people in their geek element. They just light up! John tells me that wild bees are in trouble because many newer neighborhoods don't have the "wild" bits that these bees need to survive. Wild bits like giant mud holes and a lawn full of flowering weeds and cracked brick exteriors. I had to laugh out loud because I fight this battle in my own heart every day. I wish I had a more manicured and picture-perfect yard/garden, but I also appreciate the rougher edges and real-life aspect of imperfection. I'm drawn to imperfection because it seems more genuine.

I think I'll spend the rest of my afternoon transplanting what I can into the prepared beds. It's less physical, more technical/precision work.

Digression #3

Have you seen the Great British Baking Show on PBS? Bobby and I have been watching older seasons together. There are three distinct challenges for the contestants: signature bake, technical bake, and showstopper bake. I feel like this garden is all three of those challenges rolled into one :) and wonder what a reality show about gardening would look like.