Garden Prep

After an insane week at work, and having to continue into the weekend, I'm happy to say I was able to get some gardening fit in as well.

Yesterday, I cleaned dead marigolds, dahlias, and licorice plant out of the far bed, as well as cutting back the dead stems from the salvia and delphinium. I saw some little bits of green around the salvia, which is exciting.

I also found who I think was the culprit that was nibbling at my garlic sprouts. He hung around for a few hours. Thankfully, we put up some fence. I had figured that since they don't tend to like garlic and onion, they would be safe. I was wrong. Oh well.

Little bunny was mostly going after the grass, which is fine by me. He can have it as long as he stays away from my(our) veg.

Thursday when I came home from work, there were two bunnies (I like to call them bunges), in another part of the yard, mowing away at the grass.

We spent some time picking up the oodles of sticks that had come down over the winter in the various storms. I tried not to get too frustrated considering none of the trees that these sticks were once part of are on our property. Such is life. (Drives me batty in the autumn too when I have to pick up 15 bags of leaves).

Today, I was able to get even more done, which was great. While hubby raked out the backyard, I got some seeds planted.

Beet Seeds. They look a little
 like Grapenuts!

Herbs: Cilantro, Parsley, Chives and Basil. I already have thyme, mint and oregano that will come back. The oregano is already starting to, which makes me happy.

Veg: Roma tomatoes (bush variety), Mortgage Lifter tomatoes (an indeterminate heirloom), Ancho/Poblano peppers, Beets (Detroit Dark Red variety), and Green Beans (Kitchen King, a bush variety).

Flower: Nasturtiums.

We'll see how they do. I have good luck with the herbs, but less with the veg plants. Worst case, I'll just buy plants like I'm expecting I will have to do anyway.  I tend to forget about them or not pay enough attention. Hard to baby seedlings when you're working 60+ hours a week.

We also got the veg beds prepped with some conditioning stuff tilled in. I went ahead and sowed some lettuce seeds in there. I also tried sowing in some beet seeds to see what happens. There was a parsley plant from last year that seems to have survived the winter. I transplanted it (as I had to take it out to be able to turn the bed properly), and we'll see how it does. The garlic that I ripped out in the fall (which was the remains of a trial experiment our first year here), which some how came back. We found a leek trying to come up in the bed that they were in last year as well.

The weather was so beautiful this weekend, it's hard to imagine that it still isn't safe to plant many things here yet. I'm resisting temptation, but getting this stuff done has definitely fulfilled part of that drive.