Digging in the dirt, and other shenanigans

Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 4:28 pm. 2 comments

We’ve had a few nice sunny weekends in a row here in Portland, which gives us a false sense that summer is FINALLY here (until another two straight weeks of clouds and rain hits us before REAL summer actually starts).   The warm weekends came just in time too; Todd and I were going  a little stir crazy waiting out the rainy weekends.  We snowboarded for the last time this season about a couple months ago and since then we haven’t had much fun-time outdoorsy activities to preoccupy ourselves with.   So when the sun came out again (hallelujah) we were itching to get outside.  Our first choice would be to spend some time surfing, but the swell hasn’t been amazing enough to warrant battling the weekend crowds at the coast.  Sad!

So instead, we’ve been doing the next-funnest thing.  Yard work!  I never thought I’d say it but I’m totally addicted to digging in the dirt now.  I’ve been pulling weeds like a madwoman, Todd’s been building all kinds of planter boxes and things and we are both trying to grow some veggies for the first time ever.

So, here’s what the backyard has looked like, at least for the last couple of years.  We didn’t do anything to it last year, except for Todd’s once monthly weed-wack-a-thons to keep the grass manageable.

On the left side (top photo) there were a lot of weeds, and a giant rhubarb.  On the right, some more weeds, an oddly placed herb/flower bed and a big pile of garbage (affectionately called “Mt. Junk”).  Mt. Junk started with some sawdust and wood scraps that were expelled out of the shop.  Then it expanded with yard debris and miscellaneous junk and boxes that eventually started to decompose.  Yum!

Enough of Mt. Junk for now.  The first thing Todd decided to do was to start a vegetable garden. Our friend George has some raised beds with tomatoes and other veggies and loves gardening – and eventually his vegevangelism rubbed off on Todd.  He decided to build a planter box. But not just any planter box.  This planter box passes the ‘Todd test’ of design, durability and material re-use (All the wood is reclaimed lumber from the Rebuilding Center).

We got a little over excited about starting a garden and bought WAY too many starters at Portland Nursery. So we decided to set up a raised bed to replace the oddly placed flower/herb bed in the middle of the yard.  It had some pretty flowers in the spring and summer, but it was overgrown and we felt it was time to clean it up and put the space to better use.  Todd build a nice frame similar to the planter box above, but only two boards tall with no legs/bottom.  In the meantime I tried my hand at weeding and digging up the old plants.  Turns out I really like digging holes and moving dirt.  How about that!  After putting the frame in place and filling it with dirt/compost we planted the rest of our veggies.  Not bad for a weekend’s worth of work.

The next weekend was our neighborhood cleanup day, where the whole neighborhood gets to purge lots of junk from their yards and houses for much less than it would cost to take trips to the dump.  The volunteers had set up several dumpsters in a nearby church parking lot and they were charging a mere $10 for a truckload of junk, yard debris and other garbage  (they also had a ‘name your price’ area for items that could be reused – Todd also found lots of perfectly good lumber that people were throwing out).  We don’t have a truck so we just made about 5 trips with a wheelbarrow and our wheeled garbage can.  Todd was so grateful for what they were doing he ended up giving them $30 even though the amount we had probably could’ve fit into one or two truckloads.  We got rid of a TON of yard debris, branches and whatnot – AND best of all, the bulk of MT. JUNK, which we had to sort through to find metal and wood scraps which were in separate dumpsters.  Todd did most of the sorting but I helped a bit and it was. very. disgusting.  But the good news is, Mt. Junk is offically (almost) gone!  There is a big mound of dirt (mostly decomposed yard debris) that we will have 1-800-GOT-JUNK take away.  Todd’s family got him a gift certificate for Christmas last year – a very practical and well-considered gift!

The yard is looking so much better, and Todd and I have even bigger plans for it for this summer.  But for now I’m really very happy with our little vegetable garden, and with digging in the dirt every weekend!