When Life Gives You Shards of Glass

Above is my Rototiller I affectionately have named Uruz. This 35 year old monster is capable of ripping a man's arm clear from its socket if he's not careful. Despite this it's my workhorse and the best early birthday present I've ever received! (Thanks mom!)

There begins a two week adventure! As I was tilling away, planning on about 30 minutes of work followed by another 2 hours to prepare the land for a garden bed, I begin to toss rocks up from the ground.

 "Cool." I think to myself. "Maybe I'll find enough to make a nice little border for the garden bed!" 

As soon as the thought left my mind, a fractured piece of stone jammed the tiller at the blade and shut it down.

After about 10 minutes of negotiating the rock out of place thanks to my crowbar and hammer, I return to start Uruz up and it works just fine. I till forward another three or so feet when what do my eyes behold? Shimmering shards are flying left and right like shrapnel from a pineapple grenade! Quickly, I shut down the tiller and assess the situation. 

What appear to be broken pieces of glass litter the earth beneath my feet and I think to myself  "Well fuck, I can't, in good conscience, plant a vegetable garden here, or leave the glass where it is for the sake of my kids if nothing else."

 So I do the responsible thing and I begin to dig! I have been blessed to have a variety of garden tools, some of which were invaluable during this adventure. To the right we see just how much progress I was able to make before being thwarted by the rogue glass.

 

I dug and scraped my way deeper into the ground beneath me, becoming increasingly frustrated as I began to suspect that someone had literally taken a couple dozen mason jars, bottles, gallon jugs, and glasses then smashed them all before burying them next to the shed. For what reason, I am unsure, but I have a hypothesis that it was to both confuse and enrage me. (Mission Accomplished)

   

The further I dug the more curious I became and began to wonder what would compel someone to do this. I was beginning to become lost in thought when a loud *screeap* caught my attention to what was happening below. I stepped forward to discover a large mass of rocks jutting out of the soil. 

These two pictures only really capture about 1/4 of the total mass of rock I removed

So I was left with a gaping maw where once was relatively flat land and I decided that instead of wasting all those rocks and energy spent digging down by filling it over with dirt, I'd use my expended energy to my advantage and construct a pond! First things first, I leveled the bottom and then used some cinderblocks to act as a mold in order for me to tier the pind ans=d tamp the dirt down to form walls.

 After firming up the walls I laid a layer of newspaper underneath to prevent any errant glass from tearing the liner. Then I watered it and let it set overnight. The following day I cut the liner out of one piece of thick plastic sheet and set stones in to keep it in place.

I then left to the front of the house where I loaded up a wheelbarrow of dirt to lay the floor of the pond. As I returned I was greeted by this little character who stopped by for a visit. I sat there and watched for a moment as it gazed into the tote, carefully examining the rainwater for a snack. It was in this moment and I knew what I was doing was not for naught. Here in front of me was tangible evidence that the Landvaettir of this place were thankful for what I was doing and appreciative of my efforts to improve the land and create a habitat for creatures such as this.

Here the pond is lined, has its bed of dirt, and the ring of stones to act as a barrier and weight down the top portion of the liner. I placed down newspaper to act as a weed guard as well as a source of nutrition for the plants as newspaper is high in nitrogen

About 15 barrowfuls later, The stone is set, the pond is complete, garden beds lined and topsoil laid thick!

 Now to sow the seeds! In the upper portion under the white lattice there are Asparagus beans, Cucumbers, and sweet peas

On the lower portion near the walkway are yellow pear tomato, hungarian wax peppers,basil, black beauty eggplant, dill, kohlrabi, red lettuce, spinach, and bull's blood beets. 

In the upper portion by the bush there are summer squash, spaghetti squash, sweet corn, bush beans, canteloupe, bull's blood beets, parsley, oregano, more dill, and winter squash.

After all that hard work I look at what I have done and am extremely proud with myself. Now I just need to get more dirt to tackle the next project. . .The other side of the walkway where a keyhole garden will arise.