Death By Garden

The garden hath killed me. I was feeling better yesterday after being so damn sick all week so I caught up on all my fish stuff (water changes, skimmer cleaning, tank scraping, etc.), then I decided I needed to get my plants from the basement, outside to the garden. I was still running a high fever yesterday (about 100.0), so I wasnt planing on planting everything I had in the basement. I just wanted to get my pole and bush beans out, because they were growing taller and I had to get them outside and strung along poles before they got too big, tipped over and died. I was burning up all day and by the time I was done I was wiped out. I can bearly move today my legs and knees hurt so bad. But I cut some stakes on the ban saw and pounded them in the ground, then strung them with string and re-planeted my little baby sprouts that were almost 2 feet tall. I got this big burst of energy so I decided to re-plant all my garnden plants from the basement too the outside garden. A big mistake maybe? Ask my legs and knees. They are not fans of me right now.

Now my garden is fairly large this year, 23 feet by 5 feet on the one side of the garage, and 30 feet by 4 feet on the back of the garage, and I still ran out of room!!! And I havent even planted the main bulk of my watermelon, canatlope, pumpkins spinich, herbs and pickles yet! Anyway, I ended planting all my beans, the sprouts and seeds for the next collecting, cucumbers, yellow and green squash, radishes, okra sprouts, carrots, two kinds of lettuce, brocoli, califlower, watermelon, cantalope, and....I think that might be all, but Im not sure. Oh, I still need to get some tomato plants when I find then nice and cheap. All I know is my garden is HUGE this year, and it took me almost 6 hours to get everything in the ground, my hills hoed out, chunks raked out, different stuff staked out so I know where one thing ends and another begins, all that jazz. Im very proud of my garden because thus far, I've had more of a black thumb then a green thumb up until last year when my garden blew up and took off. I was so excited so I expanded it to the whole side of the garage and the back, plus a nice chunk out in the field for the vast majority of my vining plants like melons and pumpkins so they dont snuff out all the other stuff around it. Im really begining to enjoy watching my garden grow and eat the things Im growing. That and alot of what Im growing is going towards feeding my Uromastyxs and my tortoise Martin, who is a giant Afrian Spurred Tortoise thats 16 years old, weighs about 130 lbs, and is about 4 feet by two feet large. He's a big boy and he eats like a PIG!!! He lives at my dads store because he is WAY too damn big to take anywhere and I dont want his ass here because I dont have a place at my house to house a tortoise that can take out the studs in my house like they were toothpicks and that is 82 degrees or hotter all year round. And I dont want a reptilian cow that smells like shit in my house either. I'll have to get a picture of Martin to show you guys, because I dont think I have any that arent on my phone. As much as he annoys the hell out of me because he acts like a dog and follows me around and begs for food, is always in my way, always trying to crawl in my lap still even though he could break my legs if he really wanted too, IS really cool, because how many people can say they have one of the giant tortoises of the world (the 3rd largest in fact) as a pet? Im just so used to him being around (Ive had him for 16 years!) that I forget that almost no one has a giant turtle as a pet.

Its been raining all day but I dont mind. Everything needed the rain. Its all green and beautiful outside. Everything is blooming and smells so nice. I love when spring is in full swing like this. Lets just pray it doesnt freeze at night again.