Dirt, Glorious Dirt

This is my first blog. I want to sound heady, interesting and witty, but I am just too darn tired. What I want to say is this...dirt is getting too precious to eat. I am trying to grow my first large scale garden. By large scale I mean more than peppers and tomatoes. It seems that seeds, dirt water and sun are all I really need, but I just don't have any dirt. Oh sure, my house is sitting on some, but I live in a suburb with limited yard. This winter I found the perfect place for my garden only to realize this spring that the dastardly leaves stole my sunshine. So, my brilliant husband found surplus five gallon buckets for me to grow in (left over from his bio-dieseling). I was thrilled with this plan, but now I am faced with a dilemma. What do I fill them with? I wanted compost. Of course I wanted compost. Wouldn't you rather drive a Mercedes than a Ford? (I know some of you would rather drive a Ford...but you get my point) So I am making compost...do you know how long is takes for bugs to eat stuff? If I took that long to eat my vegetables, I would still be at the dining room table with that soggy zucchini that my dog so conveniently ate. (Thanks Toby) So then I thought about buying compost, but I would have to use my husband's truck and he is sooooo busy. So then I thought about digging some dirt out of the creek bed in our back yard. Great idea, right? You know the flooding of the Nile brought nutrient rich silt to the Delta. Apparently the ancient Egyptians had not invented motor oil. Now am a searching Craigslist for dirt--dirt! What have we come to! I may have to break down a buy bags of dirt. That just seems silly. Where does that go in the budget? Dirt is the new oil.