Busy Garden Week

Tuesday I spent 2 hours in the heat of the day weeding the part of the spinach and pea row where the rabbits have taken care of the peas, and I've decided is the best place for the lima beans to go.  The rush is that I just realized the lima beans will need to go in the ground soon.  They're about ready whenever the spot is ready.  Which means buying posts and hanging the concrete wire Bill had left over from his bean support system.

I wound up with sunburn on my thighs and on what would be the tramp stamp area from weeding bent over for two hours in the midday sun.  This serves as a good reminder that sunblock goes everywhere.

Then Dave came home early and had time to work with me in the garden.  We added mushroom soil, store bought topsoil, and slow release fertilizer to the new flower bed we're making out front.  Then we (meaning my man-beast) tilled the flower bed to be and the area of my veggie garden where the corn goes.  There was also weed whacking and lawn mowing that went on.

Today (Thursday), I planted all 4 rows of corn and Matthew helped me.  He played with the dog, he watered his feet, and he played in the new sandbox Dave built, among other interesting activities.  The nearer half of the rows are planted with the earlier variety of corn (Seneca Snowshoe) and the farther halves have Argent which matures later.

Did I mention there's a dogwood tree temporarily residing in my veggie garden?  Yeah, it belongs in the flower bed to be out front.  It's sitting where the melons will go while they grow a bit in their peat pots.  The cantaloupe and honeydew are all up, and I just thinned them to one per cup.  And the first melon is peeking out of the dirt today, hopefully followed by at least one per cup in the other three cups.  :)

I have some spare tomatoes and eggplants, and some basil and oregano still upstairs too.  Everything, except maybe the oregano is about ready to be transplanted to a bigger pot... if not to the great outdoors.  Those basil are getting big and beautiful (relatively speaking).

Flower Pot & Strawberry Pot

It has come to my attention I've been negligent in blogging about some recent plantings.

1 - A strawberry planter that is thriving.

2 - My first large scale flower pot.  It contains pink geraniums, purple wave petunias, and diamond frost euphorbia all in an 18-inch diameter blue glazed pot that we got on sale last fall.

I love how both are turning out, and can't wait to harvest some strawberries.  Here's a picture of the flowers.

Early Planting

So, it's been warm, and the eggplant & parsley seedlings looked like they really wanted to go play in the garden, so I planted them yesterday. And staked the tomatoes. And planted some marigold seeds near the tomatoes & eggplants.

Today I decided it was time to plant some generic-no-name zucchini and yellow straight neck squash seeds in hills. And a bunch of nasturtium flowers in the hope of fending off the squash bugs this year. Also some basil and oregano from seed between zucchini hills.

The cantaloupes and honeydews are sprouting already, and some of the limas, but the watermelons haven't yet. Still time. And oops, I've mixed up which pots have cantaloupes and which have honeydews, so I guess I'll just have to see which plants grow which. It'll be a surprise.

That leaves the melons and lima beans to transplant and the corn to plant. Corn should be any day now. Just need to till up that area again first. Then the fall crop.

I've gotten a bit ahead of myself in outdoor planting, but so far I've been very fortunate that we haven't had late frosts. Here's hoping I don't come to regret the early plantings yet....