Bugs and Dirt... Ick...

I'm absolutely not a dig in the dirt kind of girl. I severely dislike bugs...with the tiny exception known as my daughter, Ms. Bug. However, I had to suck it up two days ago and dig in the bug infested dirt. I was so grossed out, but our little veggie patch was looking really pitiful.

When we bought this house, it came with a decent sized garden. We had a good 6 yellow squash vines, a couple of zucchini squash vines, a whole row (maybe 12 heads) of Romaine lettuce, a tomato plant, cherry tomatoes, and finally a little watermelon vine. We plucked our first yellow squash from the garden a day after we moved in and they were delicious! I loved being able to go pick our fresh veggies for supper out of the back yard as opposed to having to pre-plan our side dishes or make a trip to the grocery store. It was super easy and very satisfying!

After having picked 8 squash (yellow and zucchini) that were awesome, we noticed the garden was on the decline. Several of the squash vines started to wilt and die off, the others that had squash on them were starting to rot, our lone watermelon split open and became a feeding ground for the 4 million ants that called our patch "home", and the tomatoes were starting to get weird little rings around them. The garden was over run by weeds and these horrible little grey-ish bugs that really skived me out! And the only thing that was thriving (aside from the weeds) were the lettuce heads.

We really didn't want the garden to die off, so we spent some time weeding and pruning it. It took nearly all afternoon and I still didn't get all the weeds. But at least we were able to get rid of the dead squash plants and the slowly rotting watermelon. I'm not sure what's going to happen with the garden now that we've done all this. However, we've got high hopes that we'll continue to be rich in squash. I know I'll still have to deal with the bugs and dirt (I shudder at the thought!), but I suppose you have to get dirty to reap the benefits of having a garden. Wish me luck as we try to get our patch on the mend.