Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Garden 2009 Kick Off!

Here's a riddle:

What do you get when you add 2 full weeks of rain to a couple of warm, spring days?

A HUGE MESS!!!!

It is hard to believe that the end of March, this was totally cleared out. But as the weather began to warm in April, the rains came. It rained for almost 2 weeks straight. Then, a few weekends out of town made it impossible to have any gardening time, so the weeds were left to go wild. And go wild they did!!! This past weekend - Mother's Day - became my Start The Garden weekend. It was cool and, finally, dry!


Did I mention that it had rained a lot?? I actually had to clear my way to the rain gauge with my weedwacker, just to be shocked to discover that we had gotten 4 inches of rain in April, most of that in consecutive days.


Obviously, the first order of business was to find the garden under all those weeds. As bad as it looked, I knew from past experience that much of it would come up easily. I also knew, from past experience, that there were undoubtedly surprises hiding among the weeds. One of those surprises was a big clump of oregano!!

I had gotten 2 small seedlings in my CSA boxes last year, and planted them in one of the empty spots about mid season. They did nothing. They didn't die, they didn't grow, and there was never enough for me to use them in any cooking. So they quietly sat in the corner of the garden, taking up space. Clearing out the box this year, I found that the 2 little seedlings had grown large and bushy. I certainly have enough to use in cooking now!! And I am thinking about putting some in my dehydrator to make my own dried oregano.

And at the end of the day, there was......
....a garden!!! It is not totally cleared out, but the tomato box is ready - whenever it gets warm enough to plant them. And 2 other boxes were readied and planted. I planted Sugar Snap Peas, as they are always a favorite, and new for this year, Lincoln Shelling Peas, an heirloom variety. I also planted a variety of lettuces: Edox Butterhead, Bibb, Forellenschluss Romaine, Santoro, and Mesclun. And, of course, another favorite...spinach. I am hoping for a cool spring.
I also got some lavender this weekend. This is not planned for the garden, but will instead go on the steep part of the hill where the tractor can't cut. If I can get it to take hold, it will be lovely to have lavender line the driveway, not to mention......sachets?? Ice Cream???

And because it wouldn't be spring without some flowers......
Let the garden begin!!! Happy spring!!

2 comments:

Retired Knitter said...

Holy Cow! That garden was overgrown and it looked so good in the final picture. I am way impressed. Can you still stand upright??? LOL

Regina said...

Well, I can, but I could tell you every single muscle that was used in the process!!