Some years the garden comes together. This is one of those years:
This isn’t the whole thing (only 1/3 of the deck flowerbeds and not the climber rack). But for once, we’ve managed to get things started in a timely manner, and the regular beds are such that all we need to do in early spring is turn the soil over, let it rest, then redig when we plant.
The timing of rain this spring and the way my schedule fell together allowed me the time to get out and muck around with the flower beds around the deck. DH taking out the Norfolk Pine meant the trellis frame became usable again (it was blocking over half the frame):
Hard to see in this shot, but there’s sweet peas, California poppies, and Monarda in and around that framework. Should be pretty rather soon.
The apples are looking right nice as well. Here’s a Grimes Golden shot:
And a Gravenstein shot:
I picked about a quart of edible pod peas and took half of them to a sick friend. The peas came off a patch that’s about 3 feet by 4 feet:
We also have a healthy batch of mullein plants growing by the deck:
In other words: we had a plan for the garden and now it is coming together nicely. Planning to put together pieces like getting the garlic in the ground sometime during the fall, turning over the soil early in the spring to get rid of early season weeds and start working it loose long before planting, early weeding of flower beds and the like make such a big difference at this house. Some places those maintenance behaviors aren’t a big deal. But for this place…a bit of planning, a bit of forethought…and a nice garden comes out of it as a result.
I’m happy. This looks to be a lovely summer to have a nice garden.
And now, time to go about the day.
