Gardening Season

Alexa wanted to grow vegetables this year. Not just tomatoes but lots of vegetables. This sounds like a simple enough request, just put in a garden. It isn''t so easy though if you live in an old neighborhood in Burlington. In a house with a nice big backyard that has seen years of use. I took some soil samples last year and sent them to the UVM (University of Vermont) agriculture department for analysis. The results came back much as I had suspected they would... high lead levels. You see, my house was built in 1894. Lots of years of lead paint and lead paint removal over those years has led to contaminated soil. So for us to have a garden puts all of us at risk of lead exposure. I decided not to risk it and opted to build a raised bed garden so that I could bring in good soil. Fortunately, I, myself, did not do the actual building. Instead I hired my friend Jason who has moved back to Vermont and is starting his own handyman business. He built me this...great huh? It of course was lacking on key thing. Dirt. For about two weeks now it has made a lovely smelling (made from cedar) lawn ornament. Suitable for small dogs to run around in.

Well, today I received my delivery of two cubic yards of dirt. Nice compost from the Intervale made for raised bed gardens. The nice man in the dump truck arrived this afternoon and dumped it right here...
at the end of the drive way. Which is a very long way from where I had the garden built. So I had to make friends with Mr. Shovel and Mrs. Wheel barrel.

It was a a nice bonding session as we hadn't spoken much over the last few years. It was also nice that my friend Jason decided to stop by and pick up his plants off my deck that I had been storing for him today. He felt compelled to help my shovel dirt. Now the garden looks like this...

Which is good because I noticed that one of Alexa's tomato plants already has a blossom.

She is going to need to start her planting this weekend.