My wife had for some time, been telling me that I could not have a garden. She would say “not as long as you are working 55 hours a week and taking online classes, cuz I ain’t gonna be the one doing all the work. So, we began discussing growing herbs in pots, or maybe a raised bed. We talked about this for most of the winter.

Then spring came. She decided that having a row of fruit bearing bushes would be nice. We decided to put them along the edge of where the garden would be, when I was allowed to put one in. So, she ordered a couple blueberry bushes and grape vines. We picked up two blackberry bushes at Lowes the day before the other bushes were set to arrive.

By the time our order of bushes arrived, we had several trees and two raspberry bushes ordered as well. The two of us and my oldest son had the day off, and we set out to dig up the row to plant the bushes, put up trellises, and plant the beginning of our self-sustaining plan.

A few hours into the job, it became apparent that doing this with a shovel and mattock was difficult work. I mentioned that renting a tiller would make this much easier, and she agreed. And while I had the tiller, I may as well dig up the garden. No sense in wasting money on a rented tiller and not getting you moneys worth.

And in only a couple hours, we went from waiting to put in a garden when I had more time to dedicate to it, to digging up a small corner of the yard (about 500 sq ft). Never mind that it was the end of April and we had not done any prep other than some research that said not to just dig up the yard and throw in some seeds, so naturally that is exactly what we did.

If you have the feeling that this isn’t going to end well, stay tuned for some things my wife thinks are rather comical. I don’t see the humor in most of it.