Well, this weekend, I decided that I had to re-engage with my life. I had a garden that was overflowing with produce...and weeds. I had a house full of hairballs so big they were being mistaken for the actual animals. And I just felt like it was time. Not time to move on, of course. We'll revisit the grief and mourning thing again and again, I'm sure. But time to re-engage.
So this morning I dropped Mary off at VBS, where she is a worker bee, skit participant and snack deliverer. I headed home to feed the critters, and then hit the garden. I emptied two beds.
The first one, above, was full of potatoes and peas at one time. The peas were pulled out a couple of weeks ago; today, I dug the potatoes. There were Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold. I've used my size 10 foot to try to show how many potatoes I dug. Of course, you could count, but I didn't think of that. Hadn't had a second cup of coffee yet!
Jip got involved with the digging. At one point, I caught him snitching a potato. He ate it. Yep, we have a vegetarian dog. He also eats my morning glory vines. Speaking of those, I finally got a bloom today.
It always makes me sad to see a photograph of these. The camera just can't capture that purple. As pretty as the picture is, it pales in comparison to the real deal.
In this second bed, I found broccoli, garlic, beets and some onions. I have a problem growing onions. In the past, I would plant sets and, after caring for them, get a slightly larger set. Not anywhere near an onion! One year I planted plants, and got decent-sized onions. This year, I couldn't find plants, so I planted sets. Hope springs eternal. Well, you know what happened. No sooner were those puppies in the ground and I found plants! Sure enough, this year, the plants faded and disappeared. The sets, well, the sets did what they usually did, although I did get a couple of decent-sized onions out of them. Maybe I should just give up on onions.
Oh, and I found a single celery plant in there, too!
I looked around in a couple of other beds, too, and found pickles, cucumbers, tomatoes, and Swiss chard. I noticed the my peppers are being very prolific, and need to be picked. I also noticed the the cantaloupe is setting some fruit; I'll have to thin them. I also need to cover those first two beds with some compost, till it in, and plant again. I'll plant beans, lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard. I'll also move some strawberries from our strawberry bed. I plan to kill that off, because it's overrun with weeds from 4 years of growing. I'll cover the area with a tarp to kill off all the vegetation. Then, after the berries peter out next summer, I'll replant that area for 2012.
I'm thinking ahead to 2012. Guess I really have come out from under!
3 comments:
"Guess I really have come out from under!"
And it sure is nice to see. Love you, friend.
I don't blame Jip - those potatoes look yummy.
Thanks to your "diva" comment, my sweet pepper are doing nicely. The needed the fertilizer I gave them, apparently.
But my basil is horrible. I don't know what's wrong with it, but I'm doubtful I'll be able to make pesto this year.
Not too many Yukon Gold, but, remember, those were the ones that hen took a liking to. I think I was lucky to get as many as I did. They'll be parslied new potatoes tonight, with a Peterman farm chicken. I'll plant the littlest potatoes and see if I can get another crop this year.
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