Malon brought the new six-foot-long raised garden bed he and his brother made this week. We were sitting in the living room when Malon and his brother rode in on two big beautiful horses, they came to unload the garden bed I ordered a month ago for next Spring. I’ll start working on it this weekend.

I asked for it to come before the winter so  I can put in donkey manure and topsoil and cover it for the winter. I have great plans for this garden bed, now an adjunct to the first one. Maria could lie down flat inside of it, and it is strong and sturdy.

Malon and his brother rode in with two horses and helped place it where I wanted it. The raised bed cost $160, about $100 less than its sister right next to it, which I bought online. I’m trolling through floral seed catalogs online to figure out which seeds I want to order. I’m hooked.

The plan is to start dumping the donkey manure this weekend, and then topsoil. We’ll cover all of it with cardboard.

I placed the new bed at a right angle to the first one, the sun shines on it all day long. It took two big horses to pull the bed all the way from Malon’s house (Jacob is his father). We were surprised to see it roll into the driveway.

I am very excited about this, my goal is to have bouquets to hand out to everyone I love next summer – Mansion residents, Bishop Maginn students, Barbara at the Miller Farm, Maria, and every one of her fellow belly dancers.

This bed is huge and requires a lot of good soil and manure. The bed has slats on the floor for drainage. The Amish do wonderful work with wood, I appreciate their being here.

The Gabriel Garcia Marquez Garden, 2022.