The garden is happy to have some sunlight today! The second planting of beans have started to come up, the okra is all pushing through, the cucumbers are all above ground, the lettuce is growing like weeds, and the corn has grown a couple of inches the last few days! Though one of the latest set of seedlings has been lost to damping off, the rest of them look to be doing quite well. Even the survivors from the last set of seedlings are doing great! My confidence in my ability to provide fresh veggies for my household is growing as quickly as my plants.
The only thing I am worried about are the potato starts. They only have a couple of inches of soil on them right now, and so far, no signs of growth. I’m hoping they aren’t sitting down there just rotting. I don’t have any more sprouted potatoes right now to replace them with. I’m going to give them until the end of the week to make their appearance, and if there is still no activity in the potato bed, I think I’ll carefully dig one up to see what’s going on. I don’t want to waste too much time watching nothing happening. If they aren’t going to grow, that bed needs to be planted with something that will grow … like more peanuts (which I will be buying tomorrow at the feed store). The potatoes were totally an experiment anyway, so if they fail, I am not entirely heartbroken.
I think tomorrow I’ll be planting some more radishes and onions, and maybe transplanting the last set of seedlings into their official garden home, as well as killing the remaining pepper plants and lonely tomato from last year to prep the containers for other purposes. Since I’ll be stopping at the feed store on my way home from the vet clinic in the morning, I’ll also have the peanuts I could plant, and maybe even some tomato plants too. So there will be lots to do outside tomorrow. Puttering around with gardening stuff will take my mind off the fact that Tora is away at the clinic and give me something to keep me from just sitting around moping all day. Well, hopefully it’ll take my mind off of that.
Though the garden is doing rather well, you know it isn’t going fast enough for me. I am one of the most impatient people on the planet. I know that quality in me doesn’t show too much externally, because I am really good at hiding the fact that EVERYTHING takes too long for my liking, but I am seriously a finger-tapping sort of person deep down inside. I’ve been reminding myself that at this time last year, I was still just contemplating whether or not I wanted to plant anything. It wasn’t until the end of March and beginning of April that I finally got around to buying a few plants and getting the whole thing going. So, technically, I am way ahead of the game this year … and my garden is ten times bigger! Yeah … ten times bigger!!! It’s still a small garden, but it’s going to be a whole lot more than last year’s containers, and a lot more work too. I better get some tasty veggies out of it. Well, we have already eaten three salads made from stuff in the garden, so I guess I already have gotten something out of it. If nothing else though, I know I’ll learn some new things and have some fun doing it.
The best news in the garden right now is that I believe I am winning the Battle with Bermuda in the first raised bed. With all the recent rain, I expected a whole bunch of Bermuda Grass to pop up, and well … I haven’t had to pull any out for over a week now. Doesn’t mean some more won’t pop up, but considering the first few weeks that bed was there I was pulling at least five or six Bermuda Grass sprouts a day, I do seem to be winning this one. Gives me some hope that eventually the front bed will be Bermuda free eventually as well. Of course, I do need to get back to working on that obnoxious bed of weeds soon. Maybe I’ll work on that a little tomorrow too while the ground is still moist. I desperately want to plant artichokes and asparagus there this fall, so I have to get the damn weeds under control by then.
Enough blathering about the garden. I need to go put the next load of laundry in the washer and do last night’s dishes. I also need to get the roast in the oven. Stupid me forgot to take the monster roast out of the freezer, so I had to help it along with thawing in the microwave. It’s still somewhat frozen, but I’m just going to put it in the pan and stick it in the oven anyway. It’ll eventually thaw and cook … hopefully in time for dinner. If not, well, I guess we’ll be having a Meatless Monday tonight, as there isn’t any other meat in the house close to being thawed in time for eating tonight. Lin will just have to eat like I do during the day, which means rice, pasta, veggies, and a nice sauce … and, of course, some more salad from the garden! :lol: