The Tale of the Back Garden

Once upon a time, a lady owned an old farmhouse.  She lived in it for a few years and then had an opportunity to travel in Europe (lucky lady).  She decided to rent out her farmhouse while she was away.  Along with the farmhouse was an acre and a half of land that needed tending, so the lady struck up a deal with a landscaping company.  They would use the back part of the property to park their equipment and, in exchange, they would keep the lawns trimmed and in good order for the tenants.

The lady went to Europe.

At some point, the landscape company decided that instead of just parking their equipment on the back of the property, they would also bring all their garbage from home (and who knows elsewhere) and dump it there.  Rats came and started showing up in the neighbor's yards and trash.  Some neighbors set out poison to attempt to control the rat problem to no avail.

Eventually, the lady came back and decided to sell the farmhouse.  She and her new fiance did a good job of repainting the interior of the house, emptying the many outbuildings and clearing away the mess in the back.

When a new little family, consisting of a husband, a wife and an almost-two-year-old Sam came to see the house, they were smitten.  There was room for a garden, maybe some animals and space for their little family to grow.  One thing was a bit unclear.  In the back section of the property was a large area where it was obvious dirt had been moved around.  The little family suspected that maybe there had once been a mobile home that sat there or something else that had been cleared away.  It was not until later that someone told them about the garbage.

The little family bought the house and moved in in the month of January.  Once spring came along, they began scouting a place out back for their first garden.  Soon, though, they realized it was not a good place for little boy Sam to play.  There were beer bottles and all manner of trash sticking up from the ground all over one half of the back section.  In one day, the husband and wife cleared at least three bags of visible trash and glass from the area (that wasn't visible a couple months before).  Every year, more trash surfaces.

The back garden earlier this spring (where the dump used to be).

They decided to plant their garden in the non-trashy section, but as the years went on, they needed more space.  A new garden was made in the garbage section, with more trash being excavated.  Thankfully, the dumping was household garbage instead of hazardous materials.  Even so, each year the earth will heave up and spit out what doesn't belong and every year, the little family (that isn't so little anymore) will whisk it away.

Jamey planting this spring.  I love him.

Now, in place of the dump, we have a garden.  Instead of rats, we have birds and rabbits, green beans, corn and potatoes.

The back garden in summer and Somersault's cute little rear end.

That makes us (and the land, if it's possible) happy.