Welcome to the Jungle (Austin)

We worked hard today. Our community garden had a few extra plots available that they offered up for free, so we took one. Today we went to check it out and pull weeds, but we had no idea what we were in for. In hindsight, we should've brought a machete.

This was what we had to work with: a 10 x 20 ft jungle of clover, crab grass, sunflower plants, and a
host of other weeds we couldn't identify. We did feel kind of bad pulling the sunflowers, but we couldn't well grow too well with them around. One of them had even flowered.
So we set to work and got maybe five feet up before we needed a lunch break. Went home, got better equipped to deal with the situation (mainly, I put on shoes instead of flip-flops), and returned despite the daunting impression our new plot left on us. But we persevered. There were two particularly large sunflower plants that I attempted to uproot on video. Here is my two-part battle with the sunflower plants.

I was pretty proud of that second one, particularly because of Lovely Lauren's friendly criticism. But we plugged away at it for a few more hours and had massive piles of weeds to deliver to the garden's compost area. Below is the photo of our completed progress for day one, and we'll be back at it tomorrow to have a go at the rest.

But we left at the end of the work day feeling very accomplished, very dirty, and very well colored from the sun. Lauren got a pretty well-defined tan line on her back, and my entire back and neck are as red as a tomato. But it's all part of the fun, and we're looking forward to finally putting some of our homemade compost to use and planting at the end of the week. We're thinking corn, cauliflower, cucumbers, more carrots, and more beans. But that is all up to further discussion. Maybe if we get enough reads tonight, tomorrow I'll post a picture of my sunburn for y'all to shake your heads at ;)

-Austin Burke