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Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Slow on the uptake and giveaway results.

Getting used to the 'new' normal is a bumpy road, to be sure.  I have seen a few prickly comments on Facebook about people being tired of hearing about the new normal.  That's too bad, as I don't think we will ever be back to what we were used to.  I was working in the garden yesterday, when I had a panic attack - I had forgotten to clock into work!  At least I knew what day it was, but didn't remember it was a holiday.  I calmed myself down and carried on.
The "new carport
After many fits and starts, the new carport went up (halleluiah!)  My neighbor's granddaughter's husband had it whipped into shape in no time.  I toted pieces and parts and held things upright.  How nice it is to work with someone under 40... with muscles.


There has been a lot of activity in the garden - seed planting (four kinds of beans, cukes, beets, radishes) was done first.  I had to put up the fencing before venturing out with my seedlings.  Sunday I put out onion starts and yesterday was the big push.  The fence went up and tomatoes, summer squash, more cucumbers and some of the peppers went in.  I also planted some sweet peas in the flower bed, and put in the remainder of my herbs (marjoram, English thyme, French tarragon, and parsley).  My sage is still plugging away, as is the Greek and golden oreganos.


Necessary equipment

Squash bed straight ahead; flower bed behind;
beans, far left; tomatoes and peppers front
left.,

I am trellising cukes, with rat tail
radishes sheltered beneath.  You'll
have to take my word for it - it's early days.

The tire brigade - perennials and
tomatoes

If you biggify, you'll see
I GOT BEANS!

Trellised beans and cukes (more)
in the far bed. Tomatoes and peppers in
the near bed.

Chives, lemon balm and comfrey are rampant!
I managed to keep a grip on myself, vis a vis the tomatoes, this year.  Instead of the 18 plants of last year, I have nine this year.  I have two black cherry plants, two pineapple, a tie-dye, a beefsteak, an ox heart, and two I can't remember.  Thank you, as always, Marianne!  I think she was very grateful that I didn't try to con her into starting all my seeds this year.  Her daughter and granddaughter and granddog are self-quarantining with them.  It's crazy.


I have four kinds of cucumbers this year, and four kinds of beans - two climbing and two bush types.  I am also trying a different kind of 'radish'.  I am one of six people on the Earth that cannot grow radishes.  I am trying a variety that grows radish pods - or rat tails.  They have started to pop up, so I am taking that as a positive sign.  I have kept a bed free for winter squash, as I really miss having it in the garden.  The seeds have germinated, but they're not quite ready for prime time.


I will leave you with a few shots of other parts of the garden, and a totally gratuitous shot of "Slimmie", bless him.
My lovely lilac

Hellebores with bee balm

Front deck geraniums

Luxurious in his vastness
Giveaway Update:


If I have it right, these are the quilting book recipients:


DFW - Quilting Bible
Ladybug - The Art of the Handmade Quilt
ErinfromIowa - Lap Quilting
Cindie - Little Quilts


Please email your mailing address to swomersley at gmail dot com, and I will get them packaged in on their way!






















16 comments:

Mama Pea said...

What fun to see your garden coming to life! You're far and away ahead of me, of course, but growing weather will arrive here someday (I keep hoping) and my stuff will (maybe, possibly) start to grow. A couple of weeks ago I set out under cloches flowers I start myself inside and they have stubbornly refused to grow one single iota. They may actually be smaller. Ingrates. And why is it we struggle with gardens? Please remind me. ;o)

Steve Reed said...

Your garden is looking great! That's a lot of activity in just a few days. Is that horseradish in your "tire brigade" photo (closest tire to the viewer)?

Susan said...

Mama Pea, I love it at this stage - when it's tidy. It lasts such a short time before I am rassling with weeds and invoking every invective I know. But, when I bite into that first tomato, I forget the worst parts. For a while...

Steve - thank you! It is horseradish! I never remember to harvest it when I should, so it just keeps doing the best that it can. I like the flowers, too - a bonus!

Susan said...

Make that seven re the radishes. To be honest the old normal left a lot to be desired, reserving judgement on its replacement.

Debby said...

You have a beautiful garden.

ErinFromIowa said...

Everything looks lush and full of promise! Including the cat! Lol
Email address on it's way. Thank you!
Erin

tpals said...

It's been an amazing year for lilacs here; I should take pictures before it's all done. Your gardens are wonderful. It looks like you have so much space.

Ed said...

Although I don't care for the "new normal", I think "social distancing" will get phrase of the year this year.

Polly said...

wow you have been busy, it all looks great. I enjoyed growing vegetables on an allotment just the other side of my garden but I had to give it up, it became too much hard work

Joanne Noragon said...

Oh, I think your black and white is bigger than my black and white.
I have a neighbor up the road with the very same "garage".
My sister sent her husband out to for tomato plants. He returned with two dozen.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Nice carport! And your garden looks great too!

Michelle said...

"New normal" is what people have ALWAYS had to get used to! Things change All.The.Time. We have to adjust, to keep adjusting. Yes, the coronavirus has made us do it at warp speed; maybe that's the rub. Usually the changes occur more slowly over time and people don't notice (like the frog in the pot of water analogy), unless they look back and ask honest questions about what's different and let's face it, most people don't.

Your garden is looking great! Mine accurately looks like a brown hole surrounded by walls of green; I'm hoping to put seeds in that brown hole this week.

ellen abbott said...

you're a better girl than me. I really need to get back into food gardening. but it's been one major project after another since the flood. and it gets so hot here so fast.

Nancy In Boise said...

Your garden looks great! We finished planting the rest of our summer veggies on Monday Memorial Day. the weather is not too bad it's warming up so I think hopefully we're past the last of the crazy weather. I haven't been able to grow radishes either! I'm having some luck this year finally I planted them in a bed with a lot more compost and watering every single day and the greens are about 2 inches high I thinned few days ago, and they're looking good. Fingers crossed!

Retired Knitter said...

Yep! The new normal is the way things will be probably for a long time. Covid-19 will be with us just like the flu and the common cold ... and we have learned to live with those one way or another. What people forget sometimes is that some die from the flu even to this day! And when we get Covid-19 within some sort of boundaries - something else will crop up.

Sam I Am...... said...

Your garden looks great! There are 7 of us that can't grow radishes! LOL! I miss my lilac so much but now with the pandemic I am thinking I will probably never make it back up North so I had better "bloom where I'm planted"...I'm ordering a lilac bush or 2! Stay well!