Changes

Steve and I finally decided to refine our Sharecropping idea and tone down the size and scope of our dream. Yesterday, I got up the nerve (yes, I was actually nervous) to go talk to our neighbor Joyce about gardening in her absolutely bare back yard and ....she agreed!


I spent a bit of time thinking about how to present the idea, how to make sure she would understand that we weren't going to disturb her, that it would be a good thing to have fresh produce, how pretty the garden would make her yard look, that we would make it any size she felt comfortable, how we would stop at any time if the situation wasn't working for her. I got about 2 sentences out of my mouth and she said "That would be great!". I said she might want to take some time to think about the whole thing and she said..."I'd love it...I'm never doing anything with that yard...ever." Whew....all that worrying for nothing. She couldn't have been more positive and excited about the whole project. She told us it was a relief to have someone else take care of the yard.

......Yippee Yahoo Yippee Yahoo......

The blogging plan is to chronicle this new garden project on the Sharecroppers blog and all other projects, home garden adventures, food preservation, sustainable living issues, Verizon rants, family hoo-ha, on this blog.

In the meantime tho, I just had to post here because I am SO excited about starting this project. As much as I loved the idea of 1/2acre in the country, being right across the street and a much more manageable size just seems right. We are, after all, a couple of 51 yr. olds and the scope of the previous garden/farm was just a bit intimidating. We have not completely abandoned the idea but it's on the back burner for now.




Today we went over and measured out the garden space. I wanted to see just how much actual square footage we would be able to plant and how long a fence we would need to build (she has a dog). We already posted on Freecycle to see if we can get some old fence wood to fashion a picket fence from and Joyce has some scrap wood that we can use also. I am determined to make this garden as attractive as if it was in my own yard. I want her to want us to stay....a LONG time.

The dirt has not been cultivated in quite awhile and there are a few interesting garden ornaments in the yard....

...but I know we will make this a wonderful garden, productive and good-looking. And the idea of sharing our ability to garden with someone we really like just tickles the both of us.


Tomorrow I'll graph out the beds on paper and get a better idea how much we can produce in this much space. I am very excited!