Cheaper Than Therapy

I have been needing something to keep my mind off of all my troubles. I chose to begin this gigantic project of turning nothing into something. After all, they say gardening is cheaper than therapy and will do the same things for ya. So far, I have not been disappointed. I have been working my butt off since I got home from work yesterday only stopping to drink water and then a quick gym break.

I started with that mess of weeds and ivy and bugs...ugh lots of bugs. 

After working for a few hours with a hoe, a shovel and a rake, I finally got the whole thing turned over and ended up finishing up around 9:00. It was dark when I got all done so it's hard to see all my hard work, but it looks a lot better. Lucky for me, my mom came out and decided that our "lawn" needed to be mowed. Now I have a nice little space to work that isn't totally overgrown with...every weed known to man.

I plan to build a fence to keep the chickens and the dog out, and I want to use paving stones around the outside edges to make it all cute. I have my work cut of for me, but so far, it's looking great and I'm feeling so good about it. Even if it yields nothing but weeds, at least I learned something from it and I get to take all my...pain and anger out on the weeds with the hoe...I love that hoe. 

After working a little bit more this morning, I've got this lovely mess that is well on it's way to looking like a garden. I can't wait for it to be all finished and to see my hard work pay off. 

If you have a garden and happen to know the best tricks in the world to make it successful, I have a feeling I'm going to need all the help I can get! Your advice is greatly appreciated. :)


[EDIT]

After a quick little break to go help my mom out, I was back in the garden hard at work. (unfortunately I got a little waylaid when I found one of my little sister's chickens had been caught by my dog.   :( I felt so bad but I buried it and we had a nice little birdy funeral...sad day) Notice how sparkly I look...I hadn't really gotten into the meat of the work yet, just picked out more weeds and stuff that was still sitting in there. It had cooled off nicely and I had to throw on a flannel shirt so basically I felt like a farmer and it was awesome.


After turning over the soil again and again basically just being a human rototiller, I decided that I couldn't deal with all that ugly ivy. Of course the only solution was to rip it all out. Sadly I didn't have the necessary tools, so I just hack at it with the hoe...it got the job done but I could have used a machete...


That isn't even half of the ivy that I ripped off the fence, that's just a break time picture...it was ridiculous.

When I finally finished tearing off all the ivy, I decided that I wanted to plant my herbs in these wash tubs on the other side of the back yard. They already had soil in them and I figured I'd just mix it in with the garden dirt...I didn't think about the fact that the soil made it 10X heavier, I dragged it all the way across the yard, dumped out the soil and then was able to pick it up. I felt a little dumb. But look how cute they are!
After that, my dad came out and suggested I dig out the part right up next to the fence. So I did. It went pretty quick because now I'm basically an old pro.

This is the finished product after I dug up the back part, added two bags of manure, and added one bag of pete moss. When I was all finished cleaning up all the ivy and stuff, it was dark, so I couldn't get a good picture, but my garden just needs a fence and it will be all ready to plant. 

That is how I look now. Exhausted and ready to sleep a death-like sleep tonight. And definitely a little less sparkly...