my (not so) secret garden

so yesterday i really busted ass. and i am so sore because of it.

we have this little patch of grass out the back door that looks out onto the small grassy area where my neighbors do the running of the children/dogs every night. when az was here he talked about that patch of grass as a garden but said it would take a lot of tools to get the job done. money is tight, so i didn't want to go to the garden center and buy a lot of stuff. so i talked to jes and she said maybe i could borrow some stuff from her folks. i thought this was a great idea. but a better idea would be if her (retired) mom would come and supervise my creation of a garden. and supervise she did.

yall she was like garden angel sent from the heavens (ok really from marietta, but you get the idea). she was here by 10am. i thought early was better because the sun doesn't hit that patch of grass until about noon but it is there until the sun goes down around 8pm, and it was going to be HOT yesterday (it was, about 85). so she showed up and yall, she had rakes and shovels and a fucking rototiller. yeah, that's right- its this thing that you crank up and it just churns up all the dirt. i mean this lady knows how to make a garden. check out this two pictures of her working it out with the rototiller:





now i know we are talking about jes's mom, but i do declare, with that rototiller, she was almost butch.

after "we" (she really took the lead on the work while i stood there mouth agape) tore up all the grass and tilled up the soil, we headed to the ace hardware garden center and got a whole lotta plants. i love all of them, but my favorite is the mandivilla that is in front. my hope is that it will snake up the trellis (how do you spell that?) by the front door. so we get the plants and then come back and she helps me plot them out AND plant them. she didn't leave until just after 2pm. seriously, she was a real champ. i told jes i need to get something extra for mother's day because really she went the extra mile. also, when chatting with one of our neighbors (they are all so jelly of our garden by the way) she referred to herself as my mother in law. how cute is that? adorable.

so here is a run down of the plants i planted: pole beans, rosemary, basil, roma tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, marigolds, jalapeno peppers, cowhorn (?) peppers, zucchini and yellow squash. i may also plant some garlic but i have to talk to azad about that. in pots up front i have lavender (LOVES IT) and some purple flowers (she picked them) and then some peppermint. and then there is my lovely mandivilla, who i think i will from now on call mandi.

so here are some pics. if these bore you dear reader, i am sorry. they are mostly to make azad proud and jes wish EVEN MORE that she was here in atlanta instead of studying for finals in brooklyn.

here is one of the whole garden:



and here is one of our peppers (i think this will be jes's favorite part of the garden):



here is the pretty basil plant:



and here are the bean poles jes's mom configured. if these work out, i am going to be a very happy dj because i love me some green beans yall:



and here is a picture of mandi the lovely mandivilla:



and here is the little rugrat that woke me up three times last night meowing. i think it's because he misses jes b/c when i got downstairs to check his food bowl you know it was near full every time.



and here is one of the sleepiest orange kitty this side of the mississippi-emilina:



after i was done gardening, i went to the farmers market to recycle the twelve million boxes we had from moving. then i did a little grocery shopping. when i got home i cleaned and cut up some strawberries, cleaned and cut up some spinach, and most excitingly: used my new juicer from kim & sarah to make fresh squeezed orange juice. i had a glass this morning. it was divine. after showering (DID I NEED IT!) i headed back to target to get a few things i forgot to get the day before.

it's another sunny and warm day here in the atl. i have errands to run and house stuff to organize, so i should get going.
happy first day of may yall.