What a weekend! Saturday morning I jumped up when Dann’s alarm went off forgetting it was Saturday and he had to work, not me. Since I was wide awake I got up and started my day just after 6am. After returning from the EA Farmers Market I headed outdoors and worked in the back garden area. I weeded one of the beds and then transplanted Dinosaur Kale and Red Basil, with Dill Seed disbursed throughout the bed. The dill seed is from seed bought for the 2010 planting season that I accidentally stored right under our dryer vent hose in the garage over the winter – I’m curious what that may have done to the germination of the seed. It was raining pretty steady while I was outside so I came in to warm up and get some seedlings transplanted into larger pots (I’ve been starting my seed in egg cartons, so a second planting is required before moving them outdoors). I transplanted the remainder of my San Marzano, cucumber seedlings and started transplanting my heirloom tomatoes. Dann came home from work to his favorite scene - me on the sofa with a bucket of soil and a bucket of water to my left, and a table full of seedlings in front of me on the coffee table in our living room. I was watching PBS cooking shows while transplanting.
After lunch the rain had slowed/stopped sort of so we headed outside at the sound of our neighbors mower and Dann started to mow our yard. This is quite the process as we have a push mower, our grass is just shy of knee high, and I want all the clippings bagged for use in composting. Oh, and did I mention it’d been raining since Friday evening? Fun times. While Dann mowed I busied myself with other yard projects that didn’t take me too far from lending a hand when the wagon got full enough for a compost run. Dann found us a new friend while mowing - meet Toadie:
Since Dann was mowing when he "came across" Toadie, I requested he pull him out to ensure he was not injured. Fortunately there was no cause for concern. A few hours later Dann looked up at the sky and declared we had better start to clean up and take care of the ladies. While Dann’s timing was good, he was about 3 minutes late and we got caught in a downpour as we finished up with the ladies and grabbed the last of the garden tools that were out in the yard.
Sunday morning I was downstairs putting heat to the teapot at exactly 5:06am according to our stove clock. I’m really not sure why I woke so early, but I am glad I did. After spending some quiet time reading the bible I pondered what farm like things I could do on a drizzly morning. I started by getting the fingerling seed potatoes from the basement. I cut the Red Finn Apple Fingerling Potatoes into planting size and set them out to dry for planting.
The seeds definitely need to dry as we are having a very wet spring and I don’t want them to rot within the first week because I rushed things. After cutting I realized with my one 2.5lbs of seed potatoes I have enough cuttings for four 4x4 beds. I only have one made…so that needs to happen quick now too! And I have another 2.5lbs of fingerlings to plant. Plus the other 50lbs of Red and Russet potatoes in the basement, oh my!
After cutting the seedlings and setting them about to dry I headed outside. I started by raking the soil where the ladies have been playing the most lately - their favorite bathing spot right behind our garage. They did a fabulous job turning the soil for me even with all the rain we have had it was very fine and was not clumping on me. I put shovel after shovel into Magilla (yes we named our yard wagon) to use in the larger garden bed. Last year the area behind our garage was our Friendship Tomato Garden – filled with tomato plants from the Colligan’s and the Hill’s. This year I’ve planted spinach (seed), and transplanted butterhead, Red Russian Kale and Rocket in this garden bed.
After finishing the transplanting I took Magilla and headed to the larger garden. We had moved about half of our compost pile to our new composting center several weeks ago leaving half behind for use this year in the main garden. I spread out the compost into a large planting bed and added the soil from where the Friendship Tomato Garden had been. I now have an area about 10 feet long and 5 feet wide for my Three Sisters Garden (Corn, Beans and Pumpkin). As I was finishing up Dann came wondering back and let me know that I was covered in mud…I’d been outside since about 6am and it had been drizzling the entire time. The good thing is I have the best garden gloves ever – Mud Gloves – and my gloves were all sorts of muddy which I had apparently gotten on my face while trying to keep stray hairs out of my mouth. But with the Mud Glove you don’t feel the damp or cold, but you can grip just about anything as they “fit like a glove” (unlike OJ’s).
While at church the heavens opened and the rain started coming down steady – too steady for more yard work so we tackled the garage. While cleaning the garage we uncovered a sink that Dann had gotten from work for me to use for washing vegetables. I encouraged (ok pleaded) with him to build it for me today as we had the time and couldn’t be outside anyway with the added bonus of using up some of the materials we are storing in our garage. He did of course and I am now the proud owner of an outdoor sink and counter area that is portable should I decide to move the hose and set up shop anywhere in the yard! How cool is that! It will also serve as a great drink and serving table for events in the back yard! Very cool!
Once we were finished in the garage I came in to make a fabulous dinner and dessert, but you’ll have to wait until Wednesday to hear more about them….
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