Filling the Tub

 The first of the four tubs is filled. It was a rainy and cool morning, thankfully, and I got out early, still in my jammies, ready to shovel the compost.

 

First I filled the green basket and then dumped it into the plastic bin in the wheelbarrow. Why do it that way? Getting the wheelbarrow over that tarp was the most annoying and difficult part of this job. So I did it the girly way, in bits and bushels. Once I got the plastic bin filled, I wheeled it to the tub and Dave and I then tipped it in. We used our gloved hands to spread the warm compost in the tub, which was the most fun part. The first six inches in the tub is the clay and rock from the tree holes Dave dug.

 Here is the tub, filled and planted. That empty space in the center is planted with Provider Green Beans, a bush variety.

I had started my basil plants early in peat pots so they were ready to ring the edge of the tub. The variety here is Mammoth. Oooohhh, can't wait.

 
Then we have Burpless bush cucumber, straightneck squash and zucchini. I had to add some flowers, Sunpatiens, to delineate the sections.

It's a lot of work upfront to make a garden like this one, but once the foundations are established, it will be easy peasy from here forward.
As I shoveled I asked myself "What drives you to garden, getting sweaty, filthy and suffering the muscle aches?" It seems like a primal urge to me. I love to watch tiny seeds sprout and become something, either beautiful or edible or both. And to observe the changes, and get the thing to prosper, or survive, is so challenging and satisfying. My heart breaks when hail damages or drought threatens to dry everything to a crisp, but when nature cooperates, it is such a relief, and so wonderful. I just gotta have a garden.