Garden Party

So, you know that I've totally put my life on hold for Passover preparations, right? Well, I've been procrastinating. I was upstairs today, doing a little of this and a little of that: priming the vanity in the bathroom Sissy is painting, hanging laundry, getting the work crew that lives under this roof to pick up miles of match box car tracks that are weaved all around the upstairs, things like that. Some of the worst rooms await my attention up there, one storage room in particular that I just don't want to face... all the while, I was thinking about those garden boxes just sitting outside. I knew that some of the seeds sleeping in their little packets could probably be planted now. So I snuck outside and went to work on that project.

Here are my three piles, compost, vermiculite and peat moss. Oh - Cheri - thanks for the advice, I did end up going with the back yard, which really isn't more than a narrow, graveled area that was used for parking by the former owner. I hope they do ok there, I'm leaving space for my Brandywine tomatoes at the most sunny edge of one of the boxes. Now that I really see how much I can plant, I am thinking of doing a couple of long, narrow boxes down the other side, as Lanita suggested, maybe 2x8's. I'd really like to buy some strawberry plants as I was reading about growing them last night. I think I could really make use of some of those this year!


Here is my side kick and constant companion, looking on from the stroller. She did not like this stroller imprisonment and was quite vocal about it.

Word must have gotten out that mom was outside because the children came out, one by one, first to watch and then to get in on the action until finally it became a group project.

My first hard worker. He was mixing with me.

Here they come....

We got all of the ingredients mixed and two and half boxes filled by lunch time.

Then, during nap time Macho Man and I put the grids on.

This afternoon I was able to plant my peas, cilantro, carrots and a four varieties of lettuce and spinach. I'm so excited, I hope to see little seedlings soon! I also fertilized all of the fruit trees (to which I hope to add to this year if I can find the room) and fed my blueberries their highly acidic azalea fertilizer to keep them happy.

Tomorrow. I will tackle the big rooms upstairs, tomorrow.