On a cold winter day a few years ago, my husband said "I would give anything for a home grown tomato right now. Let's plant a garden this spring." I took him as seriously as he takes me when I say things like, "I would give anything to repaint the basement right now." It's marriage, right? One person thinking out loud, while the other nods and isn't too concerned about the thought actually going anywhere.
He didn't let the idea go. As spring approached, he began saying things like, "Well, we have a lot of deer, we should probably fence it in," and "We are going to have irrigation and a timer so it doesn't consume our lives."
At this point I probably said something like, "Well, lets incorporate the chickens... it would be so cute!" and "I think raised beds would be pretty. Is that something you could build?"
Soon we had borrowed a bobcat to begin the dirt work. Some how the whole idea snowballed. At every point where we could have stopped and given ourselves permission slow down, we simply pushed ahead.
I could tell we were in deep when we ran to the local farm store for fencing panels and came home with a stock tank for the boys to swim in.
the garden after the first hard frost of the year
What happened next was the garden of our dreams. The crazy thing is that I never thought I wanted, or needed, a garden. Now it is the hobby I love most of all.
we have four hens and three roosters
Welcome to our garden! It is literally our favorite place in the world. We like to spend our summer evenings pulling weeds and watching the boys swim while we look at each other in disbelief... even after two years, it's hard to believe we built it.
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