How Much Wood Chips Can a Woman Chuck?

My mother-in-law passed away in December. It was unexpected and tragic. One moment, she was singing happy birthday to her boyfriend, the next, she was unconscious. I remember being on the roof of the house cleaning the gutters when my husband called me.  It was a surreal moment. It was not sadness I felt but disbelief. But then I looked up at the sky and felt a sudden, deep connection with her spirit. Call me a nut if you want, but I was there and I felt it and it's not something I can explain or defend.

Back to the vegetable garden...  we finished filling the beds with soil. We used five cubic yards of soil and two cubic yards of dirt. Looking back on it, we did not need the dirt. It just reassured us somehow not to simply fill the beds with organic matter. We thought it would sink too much. Now I see no value in buying inorganic matter when the worms bring it out from below for free.

This is what seven cubic yard of wood chips look like

We ordered another seven cubic yards of wood chips. Why seven you ask? How did we calculate that's what it would take?  Well, we didn't. Delivery was free if we got seven cubic yards and that was the extent of the logic.  We used every bit of it. We could have used less dirt and fewer wood chips but instead we piled it thicker.

Notice we immediately planted stuff, including a lone lettuce head for no good reason. And is that cucumber plants I see? Twelve of them?  Gardening is an excellent teacher and what it taught me is that I am quite possibly a moron.

Wood chips are light and very fun to apply. Also they smell wonderful.

I did the entire shlepping and application of wood chips myself, all the while continuing to feel that deep connection to my mother-in-law's spirit. I kept finding heart-shaped chips (say that 3 times fast) and each time I knew that it was her trying to speak to me and convey her love. 

For the following year, I saw heart-shaped things in nature everywhere and each time I knew it was her. I know, I know... I can't believe I'm actually writing those words. I feel mildly embarrassed to talk about it. I'm usually a rational person. 

 


I mean, do you see it too or do you still think I'm exaggerating?