A Tail of Woe

On Saturday, September 11th I went to work early in my garden. By the moon signs it was a good day to plant above ground crops and my cabbage, broccoli, bok choy and pea seeds had come in the mail. I also ordered blood meal, bone meal and fish meal. According to Farmer John at Sustainable Seeds, these were good to amend the soil for better crops when planting cole crops (cabbage, broccoli, etc.) David help me rototiller my ground and in went the seeds. I also planted peas, but didn't add anything to the soil with them. The same with spinach, lettuce, and some flower seeds.

Rows far left are for 2 kinds of cabbage.

Spinach closest, broccoli and then bok choy.

Since David divided the yard to allow me to have a much bigger garden area, I had been working hard to clean it up. I spent 2 days in the garden from sunup to sundown, but I felt a real sense of accomplishment. Several of the seeds I had planted only the week before had sprouted and were doing well. Ah, all was right with my world.

Then on Thursday, David called me at work. He had caught both our dogs red handed. Well dirty pawed. He said he noticed the dogs were really quiet so he knew somthing was up. They're just like children. When he walked past the north side of the house, the dirt was flyin'. I guess that blood meal, bone meal and fish meal proved to much of a temptation. Ashton, our shepherd had pushed hard enough to open the gate and they were digging where I had planted my cole crops, exactly every 1 1/2 feet apart.





Needless to say, I was sick. All my hard work for nothing. And I was pretty sure I had used up all my broccoli and bok choy seed as well as my blood meal, bone meal and fish meal. I remember thinking I had just enough to go around. Well I did find more seed and I hope that some of the meals were left in the ground. So this Saturday, I was back at it again. So goes the life of a gardner.

The guilty culprits - Ashton and Pete