[Herbalist] Dirt!

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

Well, a truck came by today and dropped off 10 cubic yards of aged
compost.  It's beautiful.  I'm so excited!  And, today's weather is
awesome, so I've started razing last years garden to prepare to build
raised beds for next year.  Actually, I'm here at my computer for a few
minutes because my fingers are sore from pulling weedstalks!

My garden this past summer was a disaster.  Fauna got the better of my
flora.  Between birds eating all the seeds the night they were planted
and a voracious groundhog, I got four cherry tomatoes, two peppers and
three tiny cabbages.  Tons of peppermint and oregano, though, and grapes
and raspberries out the wazoo.  Oh, and asparagus - that came up before
the groundhog breached the fence :)  Add to that the fact that I
couldn't keep up with the !@#%$&*( thistle...  So, next spring, my
garden will resemble Fort Knox.  Raised beds, which will be easy to
isolate to keep critters out (and no weed seeds!,) stone paths that
critters can't dig through easily, and a better fence.  Yay!

Oh, and I've discovered the beauty of 18 gallon galvinized metal tubs.
They are *great* for container gardening.  All you have to do is pound a
few holes in the bottom with a nail.  They run about $11, they hold 80+
lbs of soil, and you can fit about 24 garlics in one of them.  Whiskey
barrels of comparable size are much more expensive.  And, the tubs have
handles so you can move them around fairly easily, which is great.  I'm
going to try transplanting some mint into one before demolishing that
part of the garden, and starting up some more invasive herbs in them
come spring!

-Magdalena