When Marty's Grandma Harriette lived in this house, she had a wonderful garden that was filled with both annuals and perennials - always well tended and lovely.  The first summer we lived here, Martin was two and Sophie was a baby and I just couldn't find the time to tend to the garden properly.  It prospered on its own, primarily the weeds.  The second summer we lived here, Martin was a busy three-year old and Sophie could walk, and I spent the summer chasing them.  We had someone come in to help me tame the garden, pulling out a lot of junk weeds that had popped up.  It looked nice for like a day.  Last summer, I was able to get the garden fully weeded ONCE and split a bunch of the plants that thrived in the garden, moving Lily of the Valley and tiger lilies.  It looked okay, but not that great.

This year, now that the kids are a little bigger, I decided to FIX the garden.  I started some heavy duty weeding, but the ground was so hard and the weeds so thick that after hours of work I'd only cleared about a four foot section.  I decided to do what any self-respecting gardener would do, and I rented a tiller.  I felt TOUGH and HARDY as I maneuvered the tiller around my plants, uprooting weeds with mile-long root systems.  It only bounced like a jackhammer twice when I nicked the wooden fence and yelled to Marty that I was stuck.  "Turn it off" he said calmly, looking at me with only a little touch of "you're a moron" written on his face. 

Having successfully ripped up the garden, I pulled out all the weeds and sprayed the edges for weeds.  I rolled out the black landscaping fabric (is that what it's called?) and secured it with dirt.  Marty came back through and stapled one side to the edging, telling me that he didn't want to be responsible for yanking the whole thing out with the lawnmower.  Then Marty called a guy to have him bring over some dirt.  Marty sent me a message to say that if we ordered three yards of dirt delivery would be free.  "Sure" I said.  "Sounds good."

Do you know how much dirt is in three yards?  That's funny, I didn't.  Let me tell you, IT'S A LOT.


I spent much of Friday and all of Saturday hauling dirt.  The kids thought it was AWESOME.  Its great for climbing on.  And for finding dirt balls to whip at each other.


It also makes a nice resting spot to just hang out and drink your root beer.


And when you're done with that, you can just pick your nose and not care that your nose will be come black from all the dirt on your hands.  Dirt piles are great that way.


Side note:  Martin has the best tan in our family.