Gardening is a Spark a Minute

I've got a garden in my patio. It's pretty unusual to have a garden except when you have a house, even townhouses don't come with gardens but thankfully I do have one and it's my first.

The problem is I don't want to spend the money on the supplies to get my garden in shape. I need a shovel in order to dig up the crap (rocks, hard useless dirt, clay, roots, and other debris) that currently makes my garden.

I used a reference from a co-worker to get a yard guy and he stopped by and looked at my garden and said he would dig it up, put down fresh dirt, and haul off the old for me all for the bargain price of $75. That's a bit much but I was willing to pay for it mainly because it saved me time. I work 8-5 Mon-Fri and 2-9 Sat & Sun on top of that I'm in college full time. This means whatever time I have to spare, I spend sleeping.

Unfortunately, the guy is technically 2 weeks late and I decided to do it myself. That means I needed the tools to do the job which is not what I wanted. What am I going to do with a shovel after I'm done with it? This was swiftly corrected by a little known fact. Men love shovels.

I have no idea why, what the shovel signifies within the male psyche but men have multiple shovels. I asked my boss and he said sure he'd loan me a shovel but which kind did I need. I only know of two the smooth edge and the pointy one. I said the pointy one so I wouldn't need a hoe. He nods and says he'll bring it for me and he did. I also told my coworker at my w/e job and he let me borrow the smooth edge one. During both of these asking conversations I was made to feel an idiot for not having a shovel of my own as apparently in man culture you are given a shovel to symbolize your entrance into adulthood whereas women get tampons that they bled on and then throw away.

I must say I like the man culture tradtion much better.

My apt. complex specifically said they loved their tenants to garden in the spaces provided but they didn't want the unwanted dirt just thrown willy nilly anywhere or thrown into the dumpsters. When the dump trucks come the dirt goes everywhere and it kills the grass if it sits there in the heat for days on end. So I need to dump the dirt and I don't have a wheelbarrow or a sweet yard guy to cart it off for me.

How did I resolve this problem? I moved recently and still have boxes laying around. I put a trash bag in a box and put the dirt in there. I need like 12 more boxes to make this technique really work but it's all I got for now.

I've recently bought a digital camera so I'm hoping to take pictures as my garden progresses. It will make me feel like Tim from Home Improvement. Remember when they shows his progress with the car and how it had taken him like 4 seasons to build it. Le sigh.

Anyways, it's 9pm which is perfect gardening time during the summer in Texas so I'm off to hoe and dig. Then back in to sleep to rise early and work out.