Well, I finally got my garden started today, that is I finally planted the first seeds. I planted 2 rows of peas, 1 of watermelon and 2 of beets. In additon I plan to plant broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and squash, and plants of tomatos and bell peppers. I'm also looking to plant some herbs like mints, basil and rosemary.

The garden is still pretty small (about 10' x 6'), and rows have been laid along the 10 ft. running North to South; I intend to enlarge it when I get time to dig through more crumpled soil. We had a large section of the middle field plowed (about 60' x 20') and then stirred up with the excavator; but there is still much sod getting in the way of digging; I think I can expand the current garden to manage a section of about 20' x 20'. In the rest we will plant pumpkins and corn. There will be a fence put up around the main garden section, but I don't know what we will do to keep the deer and chickens out of the larger section.

The whole plowed area runs basically East to West between the far lilacs and the birches near Jason and Anita's old place (the line of the road down to the pond) just past the pin oak in the middle of the middle field, not quite making it to the pear tree and certainly not the chicken house. It divides on either side of the pin oak, leaving small seperated patches reaching West; I don't know if I will garden the Northern one, as it is full of sod. The current garden section runs along the Northerly line of the plowed area from just West of the lilacs to just before the start of the pin oak, and then about 6' South, where the land slopes downhill.

On a side note, the chickens still have a pretty large area in which to roam and forage between the garden and the ridge of the lilies, though it has been reduced from the plowing. After we excavated the area though, I saw the chickens roaming on the newly upturned soil, maybe looking for worms and insects. I'm not sure how unhappy they will be once this area is fenced in.

I'm considering what to do with the section of the middle field North of the garden and between the two lilac clusters, especially since I previously shoveled sod from two patches before we knew we would get the other section plowed. I intend to put much of the sod back, but of course there will be wholes and patches, inconsistancies and that is not desirable. I suppose just filling them in with soil will be the best bet. Also, there is the question of what to do with the North-Westerly section, that contains much of the sod I have removed from the current garden area. I would like the middle field to have a pleasant and somewhat kept but natural look - that is to say I don't want ugly holes or weed patches - I don't want it rigid or sterile, but to resemble a romantic garden with fruit trees; long grasses to fill in otherwise unplotted areas; grasses and wild plants in ront of and around the chicken house; lilies, lilacs and apple trees along the edges; the vegetable garden. It's a vision for now, but not really requiring too much work to complete.