"Before" photos

I finally got the last of my flower seedlings planted tonight. The calendula, sunflowers, and last of the marigolds went into the ground. I rarely plant anything right in the ground because the dogs will just trample it. If I do put something right in the ground, I try and position it close to a barrel or planter or fence or someplace the dogs don't usually go. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. They've broken about 4 of my snapdragons already. I love my dogs more than I love my garden though (I love my dogs, I love my dogs, yes I love my plant-trampling dogs *very* much, I really do). My whole yard is evolving around the dogs, really. The raised beds were all about the dogs. It's working. It's just a work in progress.

I also had some pansies which I stuck into pots (above) and the alyssum, which I stuck into planters I had already planted (on the side of the house).

So, this is my first "before" picture. With luck, by August this will be all lushly green, and you won't even see the boxes. This is the view from my back fence. You can see my handstrung trellis for my pole beans in the foreground and my little yellow house, with the patio lanterns gleaming, looks faaaar in the distance. (Okay, you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it in order to actually see the gleaming patio lanterns.)

Take note because the above is an extremely rare photo of my "orchard." My orchard is always very weedy and I hate taking pictures that showcase my weeds. However, I got it weed-free last Saturday and figured I better take a picture before the green sprouts start showing again. In the foreground on the left is my dad's poor crabapple tree. I think it's on its last limbs. Dad fussed over that tree endlessly and I have absolutely no knowledge of what the fussing entailed. So, it is languishing. Beyond the mailbox my mom painted (gardening hand tools stored inside) are raspberry canes; and beyond those, the saskatoons. There's a sweet millions cherry tomato plant in the planter in the foreground.

Okay, this is my "deckio." It is a wooden deck, but only about 4" off the ground - not a stone patio and not a deck, hence the "deckio." I love it. It's very cosy. My mom and dad built this themselves and I have a picture of them in my verandah in which they are looking hot and grubby but giving big smiles and thumbs up while they stand on the completed deckio.

You can see the fuschias I bought for my mom for Mother's Day hanging there, and beyond the deckio is the firepit, barrels with wave petunias (and marigolds planted right against those barrels)and then the raised beds. On the right is a "ladder" my dad built my mom specifically to stick little planters on, and my poor snappies are precariously arranged around the ladder. What the dogs need to do over there is anyone's guess. But anyway, again, barring snow in July or a tornado, this should look very different in August.

Knock wood.

Yay! A rain day!

I'm kinda disappointed. I had garden plans for today - I wanted to get my pole and bush beans planted (and make a support for the pole beans); my tomato seedlings transplanted; and at least one more of my raised beds weeded. But we really need the rain.

My Auntie Mary (my mom's sister) stopped in yesterday, as she usually does on Saturday mornings. She said that according to the moon, yesterday was the day to plant anything that produces a hanging "fruit" (eg cucumbers and zucchini). Oopsie. I had been weeding bed by bed, not really paying attention to which bed got weeded first. The bed for the zucchini was done, but the bed for the cukes was not. I managed to get that bed weeded, and all my cuke and zuke seeds in yesterday. Whew.

As far as the veggies go, I have this left to do:

- weed last veggie bed

- plant pole beans and bush beans in the same bed and create a support for the pole beans

- transplant tomato seedlings into raised bed

- figure out how to plant onions and garlic - I haven't planted either before and there are no instructions on the seed packages regarding row spacing or bulb depth

- plant sugar snap peas and beets in the same raised bed

- transplant hot pepper seedlings into barrels

- decide if I want to remove one row of zucchini from the zuke bed (there are two rows planted) and plant two rows of kohlrabi instead

All in all, not that much left to do to finish up the veggies. Hopefully, I will get them done on Tuesday.

Then I can start transplanting the flowers :-)

I'm not even going to think about the weeds in the ground right now :P

Flowers, baby, flowers :-D