Seriously, I’m not sure what’s going on this year:
This took almost two and a half hours to return to some semblance of order.
I feel very accomplished when I clean out a bed and restore order. And then I stand up and stretch out my back and wonder why we don’t just have a CSA share.
I have been spending my spare time weeding, rather than posting on this blog, for which I apologize. I find this the longest time of the year, when everything is growing merrily (especially the weeds) but there is nothing to pick and enjoy. But that is starting to change. First up:
This year we are growing the same lettuce mix we purchased from Pinetree last year, and it is doing equally well. We have a new type of turnip, an Asian-style that you pick while they are still fairly small. I have been trying to correct my less-than-stellar thinning efforts from earlier in the season by picking ones that are too close to other ones. We only have a small row of them – about five feet across – so I am picking them for meals as we need them.
Yesterday was very exciting, because this is what was harvested:
Oh yes, your eyes do not deceive you – that is the first sungold tomato of the season. J picked it and brought it in for me to enjoy – what a generous guy. I think I surprised him when I cut it in half to share. That’s very unlike me, where sungolds are concerned.
Meanwhile, our search for a substitute pet continues:
I really couldn’t tell if the toad was closing his eyes because he was relaxed, or he expected imminent death and didn’t want to see it coming.
We maybe need something with fur.
So once again, I cannot take a lot of credit for moving the garden from concept to reality – J has done the lion’s share of the seedling care & planting. I did go on a massive weeding spree this past weekend, so the gardens are attractive enough to be posted on the internet:
It has been such a cold spring that growth has been sluggish. Everything went into the ground the weekend of May 17th but it’s barely done anything. I know the heat of July will kick everything into high gear.
One crop that is doing well are the hops – J bought three different types a few years ago. The first year we put them in pots outside our sun porch, and ran them up a trellis. Last year they were transplanted out into a sunny spot in the area where the orchard is going to go, and this year he split them. Several of them are already higher than five feet:
Two years ago J grew barley, with the intent of trying to brew his own beer. The birds ate most of it, and Max napped in what the birds didn’t get. It was less than optimal, so we’ve abandoned barley. And beer brewing, truth be told. Turns out Sam Adams makes perfectly acceptable beer, and it is ten times easier to get it at the store. Go figure.
Finally, the back garden went in this weekend – this year, everything is being started from seed (watermelons, corn, beans, peas, pumpkins, etc.) so there’s nothing to look at here except exceptionally fluffy soil and beautiful rows achieved with the assistance of some John Deere tractor attachment that’s been cluttering up our basement. Meaning that it gets to live another year at our house, because there is no way I want to rake a 25′ x 90′ garden into parallel rows.
And now we wait.
| Moments before death |