What's Growing in Mrs. McGregor's Garden...

I stood at my new garden gate and snapped a few photos last week. Things are so much bigger now. What a difference a week makes! (Especially when you've got sunny days after 4" of rain.)

I planted my garden late due to the construction and painting of the fence. So, no onions or sugar snap peas this year.

Starting at the left of the garden, I have two small rows of corn. Peaches and Cream Hybrid. It's an experiment, why not try something new?

Then I have 16 tomato plants. Those I purchased from fellow Master Gardeners at our plant

sale are 2 Roma's and 1 Jetsonic. My father grew and gave me 1 Big Beefy, 3 Delicious and 2 Park's Whoppers. He also gave me a Juliet Grape, but it suffered some sun scald and died. A first for me to have a tomato transplant die. I purchased a cherry tomato plant at the farmer's market to replace it.

I grew from seed 3 Brandywine tomatoes, from seed purchased at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. I also planted three Holy Land tomato plants. I bought several large Holy Land tomatoes at a farm stand in OH last summer. The owner assured me they were delicious dense fruit with few seeds. His grandmother would sit and pick through them just to find the seed.

I saved the seed and planted them this spring and they're coming on like gangbusters. Hopefully they will have a good yield. I love the heirlooms and try to plant many of them.

I have 24 pepper plants. (I know, I'm not only nuts, but a sucker.) 6 each Hungarian wax banana, sweet and hot, 2 Jalepeno, 2 Volcano, and 8 sweet bell. I only purchased the Hungarian Wax. My father or I grew the others from seed.

On the teepees, I have Kentucky Wonder and Roma pole beans. I have Straight Eight cucumbers started on the small fence gate and Blue Lake pole beans on the bean trellis in the back.

You see three kinds of lettuce growing. Black Seeded Simpson, Buttercrunch and Bath Cos (Romaine.) Cherry Belle and White Icicle radishes, Black Beauty zucchini, dill and my old favorite annual flowers, Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate. I just had to put them on either side of the gate, also in the back corner.

Soon, I'll post photos of the inside of the greenhouse and talk about me new heirloom bed that's around the edges of the veg. garden. I'm still playing catch up!

Chat soon,

Donna

June lull

So here we are in the third week of June already. *sigh* I love June. It's that delicious spot right between spring and high summer. My blood has finally and thoroughly warmed up and I believe in my heart that the nice weather will stay and snow flurries won't be flying tomorrow. I still have months of fabulous summer to go. I have the promise of tomatoes and fresh beans and corn on the cob, with its buttery salty juice running down my hands. Bugs have not infested yet, drought hasn't hit. I'm still enchanted by my garden.

Like most gardeners, I visit my vegetable patch every day. I'm sure the neighbors (and my family, for that matter) think I'm bats, hearing me talk to my plants. "Hello Dahlings!" (Some days they're even treated to chatter in an English accent, they seem to like that one.) And some days it's simply an impatient, "Grow, dammit." I know, I know, just reserve me the corner room at Shady Pines...I'll check in any day now.

I've just come off two months of breakneck garden work. Ever have a project that you wanted so much you could taste it and it took a long time to complete and when the end was in sight you bolted for the finish line? (Gosh, I sound like a little kid telling a giant run-on sentence story.) That was me with my greenhouse and new garden bed around it. Now, I'm enjoying the fruits of my (our) labor.

Proper (and virtually all) credit is paid to my awesome husband and other muscled males in my household. He has worked skillfully and diligently on this project for over a year and has built something truly beautiful. A few weeks ago we were hanging some hooks and putting the finishing touches inside the greenhouse. He was working from outside on the frame of the double diamond paned windows. I had just pounded a nail from which to hang my broom near the door. I turned around and was struck by the beauty of the walls holding all my tools and everything where I need it. Tears sprung from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.

Poking his head in the window, Hunky Man asked, "What's the matter? Smack your thumb with the hammer?"

I responded, "No ... it's just so ... beautiful!" *sup*sup*sup*

"It's all about love, baby. Just consider it payback for 22 years of good cooking."

(He's got a point there, he has been very well fed for a couple of decades. ;-)

I have dreamed of a picturesque, but more importantly, highly functional greenhouse/garden shed for years and years. I have discovered about myself that if my tools aren't near and easy to find I won't use them as much as I need to. (Read: I'll weed tomorrow...)

I also have a high need to be organized. My soul is completely disrupted when I'm surrounded by chaos. It clutters all the pathways of my creativity. I feel like it's finally free in my greenhouse. My garden creativity is now completely unfettered. I didn't know it would feel quite this good.

Fly like an Eagle (Scout)....

Do I look like a proud mama? I should because I am! My son has earned his Eagle Scout rank after many months of hard work and several years working his way up in Scouting. We had his promotion ceremony two weeks ago followed by a party at our house. What a fun day it was. Lots of food, good music, and a house and garden full of people. Everyone seemed to have a good time, especially Brad, my Eagle Scout. He deserved it. He earned it. I'm proud of you, son!

Evolution of a Greenhouse

I've been meaning to tell my greenhouse's story, so now is a good time. My birthday is in April. For several years, my husband asked if I'd like him to build me a greenhouse or garden shed. Feeling indulgent (but all the while really wanting one,) I said no. So last year (2008) he asked again and I finally said yes. He said, "Well, good, because I was going to build it anyway." :-)


We went to Constuction Junction, the building material re-use-it center. We bought great old windows and a door and shutters to use as vents. Plus 42' of old picket fencing I couldn't resist. Multiple trips to the home center and we were ready to build.








My hunky men started by leveling the spot, which sits right beside my vegetable garden, above six fruit trees we have. My garden looks really ratty in this April photo! I hadn't taken down the spent pole beans and the grass hasn't been cut yet. Oh well, always something to do in the garden.


















Then came the framing of the walls and roof. The guys were usually working together, Bob being very patient teaching Brad the skills of carpentry. It was completely framed in by July.



The roof was on and most of the walls were up by August. This photo captures the dog licking her lips after eating a tomato out of the harvest basket. The sunflowers framed the vegetables, but almost became unruly!













Then Bob installed the windows and door in the fall, which I had been diligently scraping and painting. He got it all together before the winter came and the first snowfall. Not bad timing for doing all the work in his spare time, which he has precious little of.





So my beautiful little greenhouse waited patiently for me all winter...



More later...



-Donna