A Vegetable Garden Interrupted….Again

Vegetable Garden

In yesterday’s post, I am sure that I left you all on the edge of your seats, waiting to see how we fared after our van, which was fully loaded with supplies for our new vegetable garden, wouldn’t start in the parking lot of our local big box store.

It turned out that it was a dead battery, which was easy for my husband to replace, but it took up the rest of our afternoon – so we did not get any work done on our garden.  

Vegetable Garden

The next morning found us up, bright and early, eager to begin work on our garden.  We had already dug the existing soil to a depth of 1 ft., breaking up large clumps and raking it smooth.  Then we, (meaning my husband), began to add the bagged garden soil, compost and manure to the existing soil.

Vegetable Garden

You know what says love to me?  A wonderful husband who spreads manure for your new garden without complaining 😉

Then it was time to go back to the big box store to buy the wood we needed in order to make the raised planter and the fence.

Why did we have to build a fence, you may ask?

Tobey and Missy

Well, there are two reasons, and their names are Tobey and Missy.

On our way to the big box store, we dropped two of children off at their weekly Chinese school.  Our three youngest children were adopted from China and they are taking Chinese lessons.

Now, we had some ideas of what we wanted to use to make a fence.  But, you know the feeling you get when you are standing in the aisle of your local big box store, faced with multiple choices and all of them have their merits?  Well, that was our problem.  There were so many choices and we had to spend some extra time figuring out which choice would be best for keeping the dogs out, would be attractive and kind to our budget.

Well, we did make our choice and had a lot of wood cut and ready to take home.  As we headed to the checkout, we looked at our watches and realized that our kids had gotten out of school 10 minutes ago.  So, I left my husband at the checkout, sped as quickly as I could, without getting pulled over, to their school – I was 20 minutes late and felt like an awful parent.

I went back to the big box store and picked up my husband, and we got all of the wood home and stacked on the patio.  The next morning, we woke up to pouring rain…another interruption.

The next day, I had a landscape consultation in the morning, but I was excited to get back to working on our vegetable garden in the afternoon.  As I was on my way home from the consult, I got a call from my husband saying that my son may have broken his arm.  So, instead of working in the garden, we spent the afternoon in the orthopedist’s office.  The doctor is not positive if his arm was broken or not, so my son has to wear a brace for a couple of weeks and then will get another x-ray.  *Thank you for your kind comments for my son.

That was the third interruption for those of you who are keeping count, as I am sure most of you are 😉  I was beginning to think that maybe we were not meant to have a vegetable garden. **I apologize for the lack of pictures, but we had not accomplished enough at this point to take pictures of 🙂

Tomorrow, is the last installment of “A Vegetable Garden Interrupted” and yes, there is one more interruption to come….    

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."
24 replies
  1. Stone Art
    Stone Art says:

    Its so sweet to see the whole family getting involved in the garden, I still have fond memories of when I was growing up, my parents had a big veg garden and on our birthday's we would get our very own patch of vege garden, complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

  2. Kiki
    Kiki says:

    AW,such sweet pups…so fun! Beautiful post! Always wonderful to visit and see what you're up to!! Busy gal! Have a sunshiny day!
    Kiki

  3. Skeeter
    Skeeter says:

    We have a saying in the South that I think is appropriate at the moment… Bless Your Heart! You have been through a lot the past couple of days but aint life grand! If not for your interruptions, children’s ills wouldn’t life be boring for you? Keep that in mind the next time you are at the doctor’s office. I am sending Get Well wishes your way for your daughter, son and well of course for the Garden and mother too….

  4. Sheila
    Sheila says:

    Whew! I sounds like quite a day! Hope your son is doing fine and that your garden eventually gets finished, and hopefully before the rain that is coming your way. It is lightly misting here in So. Cal, a couple days ahead of schedule, so it is most likely coming your way!

  5. Christine
    Christine says:

    I'm thinking there might be a good reason for all these delays. A reason that might not come to the fore until your garden is finished. Life can be like that.
    Good luck, Noelle!

  6. Curbstone Valley Farm
    Curbstone Valley Farm says:

    Toby and Missy are adorable. Crossing my fingers that your son's arm isn't broken. I'm somewhat relieved to see that our projects aren't the only ones that get interrupted. We've been building veggie boxes for almost two weeks now. Oh well, I'm sure we'll both have fabulous vegetable gardens once our projects are complete. I'll stop by tomorrow for the next interruption…

  7. FlowerLady
    FlowerLady says:

    Noelle ~ Your veggie garden will be all the more wonderful because of the interruptions in starting it.

    I hope your son's arm isn't broken and I hope your daughter is feeling much better. I sprained both ankles at the same time a few years back and it was a horrible time.

    Love and hugs to you and yours,

    FlowerLady

  8. Ami
    Ami says:

    Your experience with dropping kids to Chinese school sounds so familiar to me. I also often use the time that kids in Sunday Chinese school to do some shoppings, and often need to rush back to pick them up.

    Hope both of your kids are recovering.. will check back in for the third part of this post….

  9. Evelyn Howard
    Evelyn Howard says:

    When you are eating yr home-grown vegetables, you wont remember any of the interruptions, or maybe you will but it will all be fun stories to share.

    I look forward to yr next instalment!

  10. Jim Groble
    Jim Groble says:

    I am following your adventures in gardening. Our vegetable garden adventure won't start for another month.
    Yea, rabbits are cute but I got pictures of them munching on potato plants last year. jim

  11. Catherine@AGardenerinProgress
    Catherine@AGardenerinProgress says:

    I hope the next interruption is the last for your sake. It's so hard when you have a plan and things keep preventing it from coming together. We put a fence up to keep our dog out of the veggie garden. She spent one day pulling up and eating all of the carrots my oldest daughter was growing, she was not too happy about it.

  12. Laura Gardens in Desert
    Laura Gardens in Desert says:

    Noelle, Thank you for stopping by for a visit. I absolutely love flowers and vegetables and I am estatic about your vegetable garden! You are going to love every minute of it. It is a fabulous obsession and I am excited for you.

  13. pamsenglishgarden
    pamsenglishgarden says:

    Noelle, You have a beautiful family! Before you know it you will be sitting around the dinner table enjoying those delicious vegetables. Know your garden-blog friends are wishing you well!

  14. danger garden
    danger garden says:

    Oh god…I know this story! It is exactly what happened to us when we were replacing our kitchen and bathroom flooring. One mishap after another….I hope your story has a happy ending.

  15. James Missier
    James Missier says:

    Hope your son recover soon.
    The most trying thing about interruption is that the mood in getting the garden done may not be the same compared to the moment you got all your zeal in optimum level.

    I often get interrupted and so when I garden, I make sure I got a solid 3 hours in my hands – usually when my wife is sleeping and the children are playing in their friends around the neighbourhood. And even then, it would be a heavy rain that spoil my precious moments.
    I end up gardening after 12pm sometimes.

  16. catmint
    catmint says:

    Hi Noelle, sorry to hear about the woes of your son and daughter – hope they will be better soon. When you said how loving your husband is to help in the garden I thought: yes! For me, mine is loving because he helps in the garden, does what he is asked to and no more since he knows it is my domain. (He can have the kitchen if he wants). Cheers, catmint(lol)
    P.S. looking forward to next installment.

  17. Rose
    Rose says:

    They say problems come in threes, and you've certainly had your fair share, Noelle! So sorry to hear about your son's arm; I hope it mends quickly. Your husband is a sweetie to help out; it reminds me of an incident last year. My husband didn't bring me flowers for Mother's Day, but he tilled up a new flowerbed for me as a surprise one day. I'll take that any time!

  18. Rosie
    Rosie says:

    Noelle – its the weather thats interupting me here but you have had more than your fair share of interuptions this week – and you've still got one more to tell us about. Some week you have had!

    I hope that little son and big daughter are doing alittle better each day.

    I will look forward to seeing your finished veggie garden photos.

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