Whew! The Veggie Seeds Are In The Ground!

After dodging rain off and on for the last two weeks, I've finally finished the planting the veggie garden. Two varieties of peas, green, yellow was and kidney beans are in along with zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, carrots (2 varieties) and beets. Also bell peppers, Amish paste tomatoes and Brandywine tomatoes.

You can see the garlic that was planted last Fall in the back row. The tomatoes are up front. I grew these tomatoes from seed and they sulked when I put them out every day to harden off. I bet you didn't know that tomatoes sulked. Well, these were like little children. No matter what the weather was like, warm, cold or rainy, these plants kept bending over pouting. But persistence is the key. The day after I planted them, it rained heavily and I thought 'Oh no, not good'. However, they took to the abuse and are looking better now. Perhaps I will even get some tomatoes this year.

The garlic is going to be awesome this year. Look how big and lush it is.

Next I turn to my 'fruit and herb' garden. I have strawberry plants, a raspberry bush, a gooseberry bush and two varieties of rhubarb. In the raised bed I have chives, oregano, sage, tarragon, silver thyme and lavender.

In the right bottom corner barely shows where the asparagus will be planted. You can tell how much rain we've had in the last 2 days because of the puddle in the corner.

This raised bed is 4 by 4 feet. Can you believe how big my chive plant with the purple blossoms is this year. Hope this means a bumper crop for my garden this summer.

What you don't see is most of the corner of this little garden that is yet unprepared for a raised bed of asparagus. That will go in next week if the rain stops long enough.

Sage ready to be hung and dried.

Happy Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day. Both of my daughters came to visit me this morning. My youngest one brought me a lovely plant and the older one brought me earrings she had made. Hubby put them to work helping us set a new fence around the vegetable garden. the extra two pairs of hands made the work easy. Thanks girls! Afterwards a trip to the garden store to get peat moss, top soil and fertilizer. Then back to the garden where I finished wiring the trellis for the tomatoes, amending the soil and finally got those tomatoes in. I'm exhausted and I won't have trouble getting to sleep tonight.

This was part of our veggie garden last year. The tomato plants became so heavy that they pulled the wooden stakes almost to the ground. This year we sunk fence posts across the row and I wired them with chicken wire to tie the plants to.  We'll keep trying until we find what works for us. Tomorrow I'll be back out dodging raindrops to get my peppers, onions and broccoli in the ground. Then there's the raspberry bushes to plant and the list goes on.

The online art class I was taking has finished just in the nick of time. The only time I won't be in the garden is when it rains. So not much time for quilting or art for a while.

Oh, and one little last treat for Mother's Day was given to me by the way of the sweet melody of an oriole in the tree in our back yard. I am blessed.

What A Life

I haven't posted in two weeks. My excuse? Too many distractions. First I backed into someone else's car. No damage to my car but major distraction to my rattled brain. Then there was the return of the two woodchucks. Major destruction under our house. Trap came today. Sorry for you animal lovers but these animals are of the unclean sort and it's either them or our house. We opt to keep the house. And the bank will probably appreciate that there is something left to pay the mortgage on. Then last night there was a propane leak in the furnace (hubby was at work and miles from home) and I had to call the repair service. $$$ later and a dent in the income tax return. Sigh! And I'm a few hours behind on my sleep from last night.However, the veggie garden was tilled this weekend and ready to plant as soon as the woodchucks have met their fate.

No new quilting to share this time. I have finished the blocks for the Underground Railroad quilt that our quilt guild members are working on and I think I have decided to set the blocks with muslin sashing to make them stand out more. For the time being I think I'm quilted out. Maybe it's the anticipation of being outside gardening again. That's a good kind of distraction.

I've been taking more online art classes. I've got a whole lot of sketching going on! Check out my art page and see what I've been doing. It's not too fancy, just a chance to get the old art muscle back in shape. And don't forget to look at my garden page. My tomato seedlings have gone nuclear!

Here are a couple of pictures of my old garden before it got too old.