July 11, 2012 - Digging, Pulling and Planting

When the temperature dropped to under 95F last night, there was still just enough daylight left to get a bit of gardening done.   All the spring planted cabbage had been cut, so I dug out the roots.  All but one celery plant in that same bed had gone to seed, so that got removed too.  Then the bed was hand cultivated and smoothed to make room for a later planting of who-knows-what.  Right now the butternut squash vines are threatening to take over, so I might just train them in that direction.

Then it was on to the lettuce bed, where all the plants had been removed that morning.  I cultivated and smoothed that bed, then scattered on a mix of several varieties of lettuce seed and tamped them in with the back of the rake.


Next came removal of the sweet peas.  I didn't get very many bouquets from them before this heat did them in, but they were heavenly while they lasted.  I removed the garden twine that was holding the vines, then pulled them all out and hauled them to the garbage can.  I would have liked to compost them, but they were loaded with seeds, and I really don't want sweet peas growing all over the garden next year.

I trimmed off some yellowed leaves from the bottoms of the Brussels sprouts plants, clipped back the fading Johnny Jump Ups, and gave the oregano a good trimming, removing the fading flowers.  That area of the garden is looking much neater now.

Today I'm taking the day off.  We're driving to Oregon to spend the day, and we'll have a nice lunch while we're there.  Of course, I'll have to be back home by four o'clock sharp.  Annie and Otto will be waiting for their dinner!