12 May 2008
I don't have much in the way of cohesion between thoughts and photographs today. I hope you'll forgive me. What I do have are free scones:
I got a bag of day olds for free from French Meadow. They're fantastic (and in my freezer for later!). There's nothing like free food to perk a person up -- as if all the sunshine weren't enough. As the weather turns nicer, there seems to be something new to do in the garden every day. I feel like I'm always out there, even if I'm not doing very much. Although I HAVE done quite a lot already. I left everything until pretty late last year (I didn't keep track, but I think it may have been early June before I bought my veggie plants), but I was itching to get going this time around!
As promised, I made a little map of my back yard. You can see it by clicking here -- it's a PDF. Just so you can keep track of which garden is which (if it even matters to you). I bordered in the corner garden the other day, and it looks so much better. I cleaned out the compost bin, which had never actually composted anything (completely my fault, of course) -- there was a bunch of dried weedy grass on the top, which I cleared out, and all the sod I pulled up last year had died in the bottom of the bin, so I spread that out in the garden itself (it's all dirt and dead roots). What I would give for all that fresh sod now; my lawn is looking very patchy this year.
I'm hoping to do some real composting this year, and have filled the bin about three-quarters of the way with layers of rotting leaves (which had sat in a pile on my 'patio' all winter) and new grass clipping and kitchen scraps. Which leads me on to jam:
Okay, not really. But I did plant two baby grape vines today, along the fence in the back garden. I made the best grape juice ever from my mom's grapes last summer, so I can't wait until these really get going in a few years.
What else? My tomato seedlings are more like tomato toddlers now. I've been setting them outside for a few hours every day (but not today, because it's so windy!), and I'm almost convinced that they'll really turn into big plants and give me tomatoes by July. Or August. No big deal for some, but I've still never successfully grown anything from seed. But I've heard it's possible, so I'm hoping it's true.
Loving your garden diagram! You are so lucky to have so much space - I'm looking forward to seeing how it matures over the summer. I'm growing tomatoes from seed too. At the moment they have just made it to their own tiny pots but are nowhere near going outside yet. I also have trouble imagining them giving me actual tomatoes but we shall wait and see!
posted by Cara at May 13, 2008 05:04 PM