Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Path to Lettuce

One of the things I determined to do this summer is work on all those little areas around the property that are just annoying me. The gate that doesn't work, the soggy areas that are mud pits, the extra steps I have to take to go around some weird thing, that stupid wisteria that is taking over the garage...or that corner that just looks ugly.
Little Red and the last big rock

All of these small projects have been overlooked because of lack of time, money, inspiration, or just don't see them anymore and just put up with. They all seem like minor projects without a lot of merit...but once taken care off they somehow make my life and work much easier.

An example of this is the kitchen faucet that I hated since we got here. Finally we spent the $100 and took the 20 minutes needed to replace it - and my life has improve at least 37%. And my effectiveness in the kitchen has probably increased about 78% with this small change.

Done!
This is why I finally spent the $16 for gravel needed to work on my lettuce path. The front garden has typically been my last planting project. Its a soggy area that is the last to dry out, has difficult soil, and has a lot of ornamental plants (from the previous owners).  It always gets shoved to the bottom of my to-do list. However, its the most easy to access garden as its right across from my front door and once its spiffed up its the most pleasant place to sit and enjoy. So I decided to tackle the problem of the soggy pathway that kept me from getting to one of the planting boxes.
Does everyone know how to take your truck to the gravel yard? Its my favorite thing and I'm such a constant customer when the loader guy sees my truck, he instantly heads for his bobcat, waves and yells, "The usual?"

Getting your own gravel is fun and easy. We go to one of those mulch places in the closest big town. Drive your truck onto the weigh station (follow the signs once inside the yard), stop where indicated, wait for them to wave or flash the green light, then find the gravel size (8 Limestone is my favorite), and carefully back into that section. Leave room on one side for the loader to scoop up the gravel and pour it into the back of your truck. I get just over a ton - and my loader guy  knows it. That's about one and half scoops from his bucket loader.

Then just pull around to the weigh station again so they can tell how much gravel you got, park nearby, then go in and pay. Easy peasy. Just make sure you aren't a road hazard - brush off your tailgate and bring a tarp if you get dirt or compost that will fly all around and ruin the day of the folks who are tailgatin' you in their convertible. But they might have deserved that face full of compost, if you know what I mean....

I have lots of pots of lavender which will thrive along the new gravel pathway.

The problems I needed to solve with this path were to make it easy to get around the main bed and to the raised lettuce bed, get rid of the stupid grass which was impossible to mow, and make the path deep enough that the soggy ground wouldn't ruin my day when I went out there. And I wanted it to look nicer too.

I started by laying feed sacks down where the path would be to keep the grass from growing up thru the gravel. Then I rounded up some big stepping stones - I had some nice ones and then I also just found some big rocks around the property. I found some smaller rocks to act as the edge of the path.

Then it was a whole lot of trollying the gravel from the back of the truck to the path, making sure the stepping stones were even, and filling in all the gaps. I was thrilled when I placed the last big rock. My goal for this garden is to raise the whole thing up to keep it from being a swamp. Not only will it be more pleasant, it will be more productive and it will be easier to work in this are.

The daisies are just about ready to pop!

An extra bonus was that the new path created a new planting area on the left. The next time I go into town I'll get some more compost and fill in this new growing area.

I'd say this project was definitely worth the $16.

Happy Tuesday everyone! Anyone else working on those annoying little projects? Time to bring them to the top of the list.

7 comments:

Jody said...

You have no idea how much I can relate to what your saying. Our basement bathroom has needed trim for 5 years. Last week I finally took the time to do it. Such a small thing that's made me so darn happy! You must be feeling like a million bucks for all the stuff you're getting done around there!

Linda said...

Great job!

freemotion said...

Bee-yoo-T-full!

David said...

Busy busy!

AZdesertFarmer said...

Just got a tractor. Now I have a whole new list of projects to do.

Provender Place said...

We've done lots of those little fix-its as we're getting ready to move so the house would be ready to sell. We keep asking ourselves, why didn't we do this six years ago??? Next house, small projects = bigger priority!

That path looks great! Well worth the $16!

Chai Chai said...

Path to Lettuce, is that close to the Road to Perdition?

I got this link from over at Krazo Acres and immediately thought of you!

http://theprairiecat.blogspot.com/2012/06/tale-of-vent-kitty.html?showComment=1339030524701#c5459650954908256878

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