The end of the beginning

We are almost done planting things out in our garden. This weekend I started hardening off the squash and cukes. Store-bought tomatoes were planted out yesterday despite our last frost date being more than a week off. Don't worry, I covered them with a plastic tarp that should act as a hoop house for the next week or two.

Some Photoshop magic spruced up our cloudy sky a bit.

We are ready for the hurry up and wait/water aspect of gardening. Our weekends have been consumed by gardening and lawn care. I don't mind the gardening, but raking an acre and burning the brush is quite a chore!

The chicks are getting moved around the garden. They took care of my squash bed for me and are now hanging out waiting to get moved out into the yard and future berry patch. The big concern right now is our dogs interest in the chicks. Once that wanes a bit we'll move them outside the fenced garden.



I ended up buying some tomatoes this year. The plants that I grew from seed were severely stunted. We have chalked it up to using cocoa fiber as a major component of our seed starter mix. We used cocoa fiber as it is a more sustainable material than peat. Unfortunately, it didn't work for us and we'll be doing another experiment next year to find a good sustainable alternative to peat. Any suggestions are welcome - so far I am thinking about using some material from ant hills in the area mixed with our sandy-loam soil.

The greenhouse is going slower than last year due to our La Nina winter and persistent cold temperatures. At long last, salad season is in full swing.


Our violas are doing well. I wanted to post this picture to show how these flowers bring together the colors from our house trim. Still loving my newly purple front door.