Joseph the Dirt Nerd

Joseph likes to dig in the dirt and grow things. He has planted flowers in the front and trees and a garden box in the back. When he comes home from work the first thing he does it head out to the backyard to check on things. I call him a dirt nerd because he actually knows what he's doing. Certain things have to be planted at certain times. Some things can't be planted together because it increases the chance of disease. Dirt needs to be acidic or alkaline - these are dirt nerd type things.

My beautiful flowers. J cut the rose bushes down and they look sad. But he did his research and apparently it had to be done. One must trust the dirt nerd. But I just love walking up our front walk. These flowers are so beautiful and smell wonderful.

Here is some broccoli from J's garden. We ate it with some ranch and it was better than store bought.
My mom came over and they put together two more garden boxes. These are bigger than J's first garden box. He also made some improvements - there's a little ledge you can sit on and he drilled holes and inserted PVC pipe so a frost cover or shade cloth can be put over the garden.

Mom taking a break, checking her FB on her iPad. She protects it with cotton batting that is used in quilting. It cracked me up.

She found a way to help and sit down. That is the smart way to work. Always my goal.

J's new garden bed. He was showing me his different seedlings and explaining what he is planting where.

He takes it very seriously. Do you see the PVC pipe?

You can see how the new box is much larger. It was going to be a nice chunk of change to fill it with dirt. A bag of 3 cubic feet of dirt costs $8 - $11. It was going to be over $100 for dirt. For DIRT. Is anyone else wrinkling their nose? Luckily J found a little place called Singhs Farm off the Loop 101 and Thomas that sells dirt by the truck full. We filled up my truck and it was only $30. Much better. It was a cool little place to check out too; they sell vegetables, salsa, honey and different things that are grown locally.