The Start of the Dexter Garden

Several years ago, Jeanette persuaded me to plant a garden. This was a big deal. Perhaps ten years previous to the successful tearing up (that's like ripping up, shredding; not like crying-- but I did that too-- for a while) of an absolutely gorgeous Missouri backyard lawn, we lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Nine inches of rain a year. Rocks for grass. When we moved to wonderful Chesterfield, I had two requirements for our soon to be new home (Well, there were a lot more but these are pertinent to this post)-- a big lawn and a sprinkler system. Both came with Dexter Woods.

Anyway, we decided to plant a garden in 2004 (I just checked my journal) and set about removing the turf in about a 10x12' or 15' area. It was painful to trade turf for dirt but, alas, I had acquiesced. That particular point of deference to my companion was a marvelous turning point for me personally. (More on that later.) We had some soil trucked in and soon began the planting of our new Dexter Garden.