How Does My Garden Grow.

My favorite Garrison Keillor.

This might be the year my own garden gets ahead of me.

I planted San Marzaos, Beefsteak and cherry tomatoes. Then my sister had some extra romas looking for a home. 

I do love tomatoes. 

I have 24 plants, and they are huge. Tim had to enclose them and run cross members to keep them from repeatedly falling over. I wired the cages to the boards. (Funny part? He is not a fan of to.atoes, although he does love tomato sauce.)

I am hopeful that once I am back from my son's house, I will see them showing signs of turning red. I can't wait. 

One of my distressed delphinium put out the most beautiful bloom.

I will see you when I get back.

Ordinary day.

 Today, I ran into town to buy 3 dozen ears of corn to take to my son and daughter in law's. I also wanted to pick up some Italian sausage. 

My sister is up to her armpits in zucchini and sent 6 more over. I am not sure who she thinks is going to eat all that. We are just two people! We have had squash 4 nights in a row. Luckily, we both like it. I am going to take four down to my son's house. 

I found a great deal today. Green peppers are 75 cents apiece in the store. They are not ready from the garden. I needed a pepper to stuff my zucchini and was prepared to grin and bear it. I was happy to see that they had some past -their-prime peppers, 3 for $1. You better believe I was all over that! I got $3 worth of them. I sliced some for stir fries and fajitas, and diced up the rest. I have 3 qts in the freezer, and that is happy news.

I also spent some time in the greenhouse. I planted basil, rosemary, and lavender. The columbine seeds I collected from last year all sprouted. Flushed with success, I collected some anise hyssop seeds. Not sure what I will do with them yet.

I also planted yet another distressed coneflower in my flower bed. 

Tonight, we watched the biggest blackest clouds rolling in. They were moving across the sky so quickly. I slipped on my sandals and threw open the door to run to the greenhouse and shut the door there. Just that quick, it had gotten dark as night. I headed to the greenhouse, but the skies opened up before I got there. 

I slid the door to the greenhouse shut  and was checking my plants. I was delighted to see Possum wiggle in through her little entrance. She accepted some pets and together we listened to the rain pounding down on the roof. When I left, she stayed put, curled up on the rug. 

I am glad she knows to use her safe place.

Cats and kids

Tonight, for the first night, Tiger has not hidden in the house. I moved the couch a couple days back to vacuum under it, and found quite a stash of cat toys. I set them aside and today he found them. What a good time he is having, running up and down the hall, chasing jingling balls. 

Just to see what would happen, I put down a paper bag.

Instant mayhem.

Houdi has never shown any interest in a paper bag, until now.

You'll  have to excuse the low light. I did not want to interrupt the excitement. It is nice to see Tiger relaxing though.

Tomorrow will be spent getting my stuff together for a trip east. We are having a bit of a pre-celebration for the girls' birthdays, since they will spending their actual birthdays on the beach. They are excited about this. I bought them their own small beach bags, with hats and sunglasses and beach toys. 

The car ride is 7 hours to the Outer Banks. I got them each a bag of things to open every hour to break up the monotony of the drive. 

I did that with my own and now I am doing it with my 4 and 8 year old granddaughters. Boggles my mind.

Time flies...

I sent my daughter a small package. Checking the tracking on the package, I was amused to see it is at Heathrow, United States!

Tiger Makes Up his Mind

We have two ferals left. Possum was one of the original four kittens born in the garage, and Tiger Kitty, her nephew. 

They lived in the heated garage over the winter but as the weather warmed, they spent more time outside. When I am doing outside work, they are stretched beside me, and when I pet them, they purr contentedly

Tiger Kitty went awol for about a week. I had just about given up hope when he reappeared, thin, nervous and hungry. I was so glad to see him and for once, he seemed very glad to see me, as opposed to his normal 'Meh...she doesn't seem like a bad sort' demeanor. 

Much to my surprise, he darted inside as soon as I opened the door to get some catfood. I fed him inside, to see what he would do. He ate and disappeared. In the morning, he was waiting at the door to go out. 

At night, he darts back inside. I am not sure where he hides away. I think he is afraid of something outside at night. But except for one small overturned plant, he behaves perfectly.

I would rather have them in at night, really. Possum is still not interested in the great indoors. If she comes in, she has had her fill after a couple minutes and heads for the door.

I have no idea what is out there, but we have made two escape places for her to hide. 

My Space

I have been hard at work clearing the little flower bed by the greenhouse, and I did get that done. It was a tangle of brambles. shrubs, weeds and some vines tying it all together. 

Then I was inspired to clear all the growth back from my greenhouse.

Thrilled with the results of that hard work, I decided to pull out all the ductwork and the furnace Tim stuck in my greenhouse a couple years back. That poor green house was floor to rafter.

(This situation was only temporary.)

Did you know a furnace weighs 250 pounds? And that hornets build nests in them when they sit for a couple years? Just two things I learned about furnaces.

So I hauled it all to Tim's garage, about 30 yards away. 

(It is only temporary.)

And it looked so very nice once I was able to get inside. So I got a broom, a bucket of soapy water, and some window cleaner. 

 

You know what is missing? Plants. 

My project right now will be propagating. Later on, seed collection. Next year, the goal will be a small heater so that I can start my plants out there. We already have one in the garage waiting.

Immortality

 For a time, there was an old woman sitting on the porch of an old house in a wheelchair. Whenever a car passed, she would smile and wave. 

The first time I saw her, I smiled and waved back. The second time, I gave a friendly toot on my horn. The third time. I realized that she did this nearly every day. 

I began to purposely take that side street in to town for no other reason than to smile and wave back. She always seemed so joyous.

Winter came, and it was a long one, but spring came along as it always does. However that old woman no longer sat on her front porch. Still, though, I find myself turning down that side street. I remember the waving and her big smile.

In a way, that is immortality, and that is not the worst way to be remembered, is it?

What I have been up to

Over 5 years ago. Tim and I built a little greenhouse. 

As is my nature, I started stacking stones on the west side of it for a flowerbed. 

In the intervening years, I did not keep up with it because we were building a house, and Tim got sick. A lot of upheaval there. Nature started taking that little space back. 

Yesterday, I started work on it. I weed whacked. We have blades on the weedeater so it does a good job on the tangley overgrowth. When I chopped back to the stone wall, I was able to kneel and begin sorting out the mess inside. I was happy to find a nice patch of aquilegia/columbine and it reminded me so much of Weaver. I miss her voice.

I dug on. Tiger lily. Spearmint. I am going to replant wild flower there. 

I had a meeting at 5:30, so I only got halfway done, but before I headed back to the house, I decided to give a quick weeding to the front of the greenhouse. I was shocked to see a hydrangea stubbornly doing battle with the tall weeds. 

I'd seen that struggling little plant in the store years back and it reminded me of my old friend who died of brain cancer close to 20 years ago now (how is that even possible?!!)  I got it. Planted it. It promptly died. I chalked up as one of my poor plants that did not make it. While I may have given up, that little plant did not, and yesterday I found it. I was so pleased at that little miracle!

There is something very grounding about weeding and sweating and thinking about other people and other times, even if it is hotter than hades. It was a sweet afternoon and I really enjoyed my quiet time.

My nephew made me a bottle tree and delivered it when he came off his hill on Sunday. That was something else I did yesterday. I transplanted some established morning glory vines at the base of it. The vines will climb the trunk and spread across the branches. Maybe not this year, but we will see. 

Yesterday, those vines looked wilted and unhappy. Today, a series of thunderstorms are rattling through. Between downpours, I snuck out to take a peek. Things look a lot more hopeful today.

Step by step.