Sifting the Yard

As mentioned previously, we encountered a significant challenge as we began preparing our chosen ground for our new vegetable garden. That challenge was a substantial layer of solid pea gravel, hidden beneath several inches of beautiful yet deceptive garden soil.

Naturally, our first reaction was disappointment, as expressed by my pouting and Mulch Boy's insistence that we might as well quit because obviously we could never grow anything here.

Insert copious profanity here.

But we are resilient people. Or stubborn. Perhaps Mulch Boy was inspired by the sight of his wife sitting in the giant hole that was meant for our garden.

I'm just sitting in this hole. #glamorshot

In any case, in short order Mr. "It Can't Be Done" was googling the interwebs, and soon he had devised A Cunning Scheme. One trip to the Dee-Pot, a two-by-four, some metal mesh, and a staple gun later and behold! The Garden Sifter was born!

Mulch Boy demonstrates his invention,.

So yeah, we're sifting the garden. This is every bit as tedious as you might imagine. Our best estimate is that it will take 900,000 years.

Do your job.

It works, though, freakishly well.  In the pictures above, we were sifting directly into the garden, and then dumping the gravel onto the porch. There is a lot of gravel on the porch. Meanwhile, we pitch the bigger rocks into a pile by Muriel.

That's just the big rocks we've sifted, and we've barely
sifted 10 percent. The porch is covered in pea gravel.
Muriel can barely contain her excitement.

And so there we are. If/when we ever DO finish this task, we are going to have the best by-golly garden patch that ever was. We may be too arthritic by that time to actually plant anything, but at least we'll have the pride that goes with a job well done. Or whatever.

Regal.