Our Garden Space - Before

We're a little late on the draw this year re: the new garden. 

Honestly, we've been trying to till this thing for a few weeks now, only to have not one, but two tillers crap out on us. Tiller #1 (borrowed from a friend) had blades so dull that they were rounded off. In a plot that had been tilled up previously, that might have cut the mustard. But in our lower pasture, densely matted with reed canary grass, and just below the surface, their tightly interlaced rhizomes, it was like trying to turn the sod over using the power of happy thoughts. No go.

So, we rented a tiller from a home improvement store. After lugging that lumbering beast home and up to the garden site, Bill started tilling. It worked 110% better than the first tiller, but had an ill-fitting gas cap, which meant that whenever the machine was jostled, a wee bit of gasoline slopped out. There was no stopping the leakage. Bill and the guy at the store tried various techniques and different caps in an attempt to stop the gas from spilling out, but nothing would plug it up sufficiently to keep the gasoline from sloshing out and onto our soon-to-be garden. Not cool! So, Bill returned it and got a refund.

A full day wasted and absolutely nothing to show for it. Turning over that much space by hand wasn't feasible. If only there were another way...

 ...BAM! 

Do you see that pen that they're in? That was solid, lovely green grass before these guys got a hold of it. It was freshly tilled mud-pit 24 hours later. So, we're putting these lil' stinkers to work for us in the garden space. Coming up with our genius plan was the easy part of the process. The hard part? Wranglin'.

There was a lot of this -

Porkchop is on the lamb!

Attempting to separate Baykin from 'Shootie.

The "Wheelbarrow Maneuver". By far the easiest way we've found to get a cranky pig from point A to point B.

Porkers on the green. Do your thang, piggies!

They're all three now in their new, fortified, garden digs, happily chowing down grass, after which (I hope) they'll quickly resort to rooting up and eating the grass roots, and dropping some potent fertilizer as they go. By next weekend, I (really, REALLY) hope that I can post an "after" picture of their handiwork.

And now I must go and collapse in a heap after helping to chase down and wrangle the piggies three. Blergh...