Since chocolate is one of my favorite food groups I am happy to share this special day with all!
It has been raining off and on today so I got a break from yard work and gardening. Yesterday I got quite a bit of planting done. Tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, cilantro, beets, chard, leeks, cabbage and bok choy. I was given a mystery packet of seeds at the seed exchange early this spring and they have come up as the spitting image of the red cabbage I seeded. So I will have quite a few heads of those. When I am able to get out and plant again I will be doing a variety of dry beans and green beans. Each year a farmer that attends the local Baptist church will dump a huge pile of his crops in the parking lot and for a donation you can take all you want. For the past few years I have gotten all the green beans I could use...canning dozens of jars of them. So this year I am only planting enough to give us a few meals with fresh beans over the summer. And dedicating more space to heirloom dry beans. I will also get broccoli, and corn from this farmer. Last year he even included cauliflower and butternut squash. Hoping for that again too! Craig did a lot of tilling for me in an area at the back center of the yard that has thus far been taken over by strawberry plants and never really taken care of. The builders brought in the worst imaginable stuff once they took out the good soil and we have battled that for six years. That area is the last strong hold of it. David dug me three very deep holes which I filled with Miracle Grow potting mix and planted three flowering perrenials. That is the start to taming that area. I hated pulling up and tilling under the strawberries but when they grow like that you tend to walk on as many as you pick and there was also some very hardy weeds growing there as well.
I have decided to give Liam a few feet of one of the beds. I am going to show him step by step what to do to plant and then let him do it himself. I will sneak out when he is otherwise occupied and redo anything that might need help to ensure he has something come up, but I am going to let him be in charge. The reason I thought it was time to do this is because without any suggestion from me he filled a little container with water and watered each tomato plant as I got it in the ground. He was so tender doing it also. At one point he picked a few of the orange flowers I have growing by the bird bath and tore the petals off into the water. The tomato plants loved the flower water he said. I bet they did! I am going to take him to the store and let him pick out a couple seedlings also. I will name what they are and he can choose the ones he wants. He loves watermelon so I am torn on letting him do that one...we just don't have the growing season for them. Anyway...that is my plan for the rest of the week. That and laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. It amazes me how much laundry I do! We use our bathtowels, washclothes, hand towels etc, for a week generally. We wear our clothes more than once (of course not underwear). My gardening dresses are worn several days in a row....and yet I do about six loads a week! I think the things multiply in the hamper!
Well, it is time for me to think of dinner. There, thought of it...nothing came to mind. I think leftovers.
Maybe some Keeping Up Appearances will round out my evening. Hope yours is wonderful!
It has been raining off and on today so I got a break from yard work and gardening. Yesterday I got quite a bit of planting done. Tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, cilantro, beets, chard, leeks, cabbage and bok choy. I was given a mystery packet of seeds at the seed exchange early this spring and they have come up as the spitting image of the red cabbage I seeded. So I will have quite a few heads of those. When I am able to get out and plant again I will be doing a variety of dry beans and green beans. Each year a farmer that attends the local Baptist church will dump a huge pile of his crops in the parking lot and for a donation you can take all you want. For the past few years I have gotten all the green beans I could use...canning dozens of jars of them. So this year I am only planting enough to give us a few meals with fresh beans over the summer. And dedicating more space to heirloom dry beans. I will also get broccoli, and corn from this farmer. Last year he even included cauliflower and butternut squash. Hoping for that again too! Craig did a lot of tilling for me in an area at the back center of the yard that has thus far been taken over by strawberry plants and never really taken care of. The builders brought in the worst imaginable stuff once they took out the good soil and we have battled that for six years. That area is the last strong hold of it. David dug me three very deep holes which I filled with Miracle Grow potting mix and planted three flowering perrenials. That is the start to taming that area. I hated pulling up and tilling under the strawberries but when they grow like that you tend to walk on as many as you pick and there was also some very hardy weeds growing there as well.
I have decided to give Liam a few feet of one of the beds. I am going to show him step by step what to do to plant and then let him do it himself. I will sneak out when he is otherwise occupied and redo anything that might need help to ensure he has something come up, but I am going to let him be in charge. The reason I thought it was time to do this is because without any suggestion from me he filled a little container with water and watered each tomato plant as I got it in the ground. He was so tender doing it also. At one point he picked a few of the orange flowers I have growing by the bird bath and tore the petals off into the water. The tomato plants loved the flower water he said. I bet they did! I am going to take him to the store and let him pick out a couple seedlings also. I will name what they are and he can choose the ones he wants. He loves watermelon so I am torn on letting him do that one...we just don't have the growing season for them. Anyway...that is my plan for the rest of the week. That and laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. It amazes me how much laundry I do! We use our bathtowels, washclothes, hand towels etc, for a week generally. We wear our clothes more than once (of course not underwear). My gardening dresses are worn several days in a row....and yet I do about six loads a week! I think the things multiply in the hamper!
Well, it is time for me to think of dinner. There, thought of it...nothing came to mind. I think leftovers.
Maybe some Keeping Up Appearances will round out my evening. Hope yours is wonderful!