Garden, part 1.

I've been attempting to plant a garden in our back yard. I got
tomatoes planted yesterday but I highly doubt they'll do well 'cause
I didn't exactly follow directions (how surprising). Then I was
going to plant potatoes but no one had any seed potatoes yet so I ate
a baked potato for breakfast this morning and cursed silently under
my breath about it. Then again it'll be a bit longer before I can
plant them anyway. I've been hoeing for two days now (okay, like,
six hours total) and have more marble debris than I need for the
edging on the garden. The only reason I figured out that I NEED
edging on the garden is due to the abundance of marble fragments in
the soil. There were some pretty big pieces in there, let me tell
you! Still are. I'm not even halfway done from the looks of it. As
I dug in my hoe the first few times, I'd expected some little stones
here and there. Instead, I discovered marble fill. Exciting on the
one hand 'cause some pieces are kinda cool and I feel like an
excavator or a little kid in a sandbox or something, but egads, I
wanted to just plant the garden and be done with it!! There's more
to be said, I think, for playing with the water hose... still,
finding old matchbox cars, figurines, and weird things like very
unhappy wax is pretty fun. I can see, however, why marble is kinda
taken for granted around here.

Anywho, I'm hoping to raise tomatoes, potatoes, green onions,
carrots, peppers, and spinach. I don't have high hopes, mind you,
but that's because I've never gardened before and didn't feel like
figuring out how to test the soil and stuff. I just used my
fundamental knowledge of gardening from various reads: pick a sunny
spot, dig it all up with a hoe, remove big stones (or in my case,
slabs of marble), and then put it all back sans the stones. Then the
soil's all aeratedish and the earthworms can go poop in it easier so
the plants we like to eat have something they like to eat. (Yeah,
ew, but that's nature for ya. Humans ultimately eat worm poo. In
fact, some humans eat the whole worm. Good for them, but I'm not one
of them. I prefer spaghetti.)

The only other stuff about gardening that I know is that you should
fertilize and make sure the soil is properly pH balanced. I don't
mind the fertilizing part but I don't want to put underarm deodorant
on there 'cause I'm trying to grow organically. So, tough cookies on
the pH thing, I say. I'm guessing the sandy marbly poo that's
streaked throughout our yard is adding calcium and/or lime to the
soil, thus alkaline pH. That's enough info for me. I'll just hoe in
some potting soil and call it good. Doubtful I get to grow
blueberries, however.

I saw somewhere that marble chip is $120 per cubic yard down in
Florida... *wonders if anyone wants ours*

~nv