Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Merry Mary how does your garden grow?

I'm trying a couple new things this year.


Vegetables and Herbs.



This herb garden is a small planter off my back deck. I'm experimenting with something called "square foot gardening." I made the frame, and yes, I'm aware the pine lumber won't hold up long but I'm not committed to this way of gardening long term until I see how it goes - so the pine works for me. The "soil" in the box is a mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss and I didn't dig up the grass before putting it down, the planter is set on a big piece of cardboard over the grass. The box is sectioned off into 1 foot square areas for planting.



I know this whole operation sounds a little sketchy but I'm giving it a try. I've got herbs in half of the squares and spinach and lettuce in the remainder.


On the other side of the house, I've started a traditional garden. We rented a sod cutter and took the sod up from the garden area. What a amazing machine. It cuts the sod from the ground and all we had to do it pick it up and move it out. And, man, is that stuff HEAVY. Good thing I had my husband and son and their muscles doing much of the hard work here. This is where the vegetables are going.




I'm anxious to see things coming up and growing and then harvesting from my gardens.


I've been daydreaming about a grilled chicken dish that uses fresh basil. I can't wait to go out to my garden and pick some for it. Perhaps I'll throw some zucchini and yellow summer squash from my garden on the grill with the chicken and then slice up some ripe red tomatoes.
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As of tonight, the garden is tilled and planted. I really hope things grow.

Spring Flowers

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. Song of Solomon 2:12

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Audra Foveo

The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size. ~Gertrude S. Wister


A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. ~Adabella Radici