Black thumb and growing RADishes

question of the day: How many biology and chemistry degrees does it take to have a successful garden?
Answer: More than are in my house!

The great gardening adventure is now 4 years old, and we still are struggling. Since dh and I both have biology degrees, I have a chem minor, he almost has a chem degree, AND I was a farm girl, one would think we'd have a lush paradise in our backyard. Instead, our landscaping continues to struggle, thanks to digging, chewing, and peeing dogs. The garden struggles for two main reasons: Bad soil (thanks Mr. Developer, for taking and selling all of our top soil), and the fact that we don't seem to have a clue what we are doing.

Last year, for example, we managed to stick fertilizer, black dirt, and a little peat moss in each row. The corn loved it. The pumpkins and squash loved it, those that survived the aphids that is. The beans loved it, and carrots don't seem to know I have a black thumb. The planting seems to be dh's thing...he will carefully add the dirt, etc to each row, make sure the rows are straight and I think given 1/2 a chance he'd even take a ruler out there to make sure the seeds were equal distances apart. The weeds, on the other hand, are apparently my job to control. Well, I thought I had a handle on it last summer. At least until we left for two weeks. When we came back there was a lush paradise of weeds to contend with, and since my ovaries were the size of a baseball I wasn't in much shape to take care of it.

So I blame last year's failures on Dr. Doyle of Connecticut Fertility Associates and aphids. This year, I had this nice surgery to blame things on, until dh decided that the kids could help and we could actually get the garden in. So two of the kids and I got everything in one afternoon--no straight rows, now fertilizer, no black dirt, and no peat moss.

Oh, and we have a drought. However, thanks to the wonders of Wellbutrin SR, I actually have the energy to weed this year. We are still strying to overcome the poor soil quality though. I remember when I was a kid, mom seemed to grow 3x what I have in 1/2 the space. Of course all of the corn was in a field that Dad took care of, and that area had never been stripped of the top soil. Plus, it had once belonged to my Dad's mom--crops wouldn't DARE to not grow there.

Sadly, despite green thumbs on both sides of the family, I seem to have gotten the recessive black thumb gene. Oh well, I'll keep trying, let's hope it doesn't care over to the RADishes.

Repeat: My radish can't push my buttons, my radish can't push my buttons, my radish can't push my buttons! My litte darling is trying so hard to get me to explode. He's had some success, I'm sorry to say. I've been calling on/depedning on reinforcements a lot lately, thankfully dh hates his job so bad at this point he'll gladly stay home. I can't wait until he can quit this job. Back to the radish. Not sure if I should let him slee until dh gets home or not.

I will not lose my temper, I will not lose my temper, I will not lose my temper. I AM a good RAD mom, I AM A GOOD RAD MOM, I AM A GOOD RAD MOM! I just wish we could see some progress faster though. To be fair, he is the easiest Radish we've ever had. DS was much harder, and the two D's of course, took the cake. So...I will hang tough. I'm ready for battle, but praying for the peace.

Some overeating today, probably due to stress of the Radish and the plumber. It's not helping that they'll send the bill, instead of getting it RIGHT NOW. Going to trust DH, it'll be less than $200. All in all, the overeating was very minor--just more tacos than I should have had. I can't really count the dark chocolate as overeating, instead, I think it's a necessity.

"If you do my boot camp starting today" Says Oprah, "You can lose 25 pounds of fat in three months. Piss off Oprah! Send Bob to my house for those three months, and sure I can do it. In the words of ds, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I bet she doesn't have tendonitis in her foot either. Dr. says I'm doing well, but it's classified as chronic pain at this point. Well, it's a start--after 24 years, I'm finally getting somewhere--some one is finally listening to me instead of telling me I'm nuts. Heck, maybe the NSAIDS will help my knee too. A girl can hope can't she?

The Gypsy aka the former dfs is still not home with my van. The little liar had court, although part of my sort of wishes he'd get time, I just want him out of my house.

On the money front, some progress has been made! Medical bills were paid in cash, and although we don't have a lot of progress overall, the van debt is decreasing. Will try for more next month. If the Capital One gets PIF, then that'll mean a $800 van payment for Sept.