April 20, 2009: It's Not Every Day....

....that I'm utterly exhausted from working outside. But today I am. It's not the everyday chores of gardening, that's always a good kind of tired. It's the grunt work like digging out underground sprinklers and installing new ones (three of them today), filling pots and buckets with potting soil, edging the lawn around the garden, spraying the weeds in the street.

Yes, we have weeds in our street! Actually they are in the parking strip between the street and the curb. I have no idea why this area was never paved, but I have to resort to using Roundup on it several times through the year, or we get tack weeds (goat heads or whatever you want to call them) and other noxious weeds growing there. I've been killing them out for twenty years now, I think I'm fighting a losing battle!

So I'm tired, and stiff and sore. I decided to take a bit of a rest and wander outside with the camera.


I was so happy to see a LOT of bees working the flowering quince! Last year I didn't see any bees around here until September, when I found a few on my squash blossoms.


This is the final spring for the flowering almond. It has lived here for almost 20 years, and is really past its prime. It will have to be removed to make room for a larger garden shed, but maybe I can dig up a few suckers and get another one started.


I know I showed you a picture of the pansies Saturday, but they just look so happy I had to show them to you again.


It was 84F here today, so Annie spent most of her day enjoying the warm sun. This is her favorite spot in the yard. There is a root from the old maple tree sticking out of the ground, and she keeps the grass worn down from laying on it. Poor little thing looks like she's starving, doesn't she?


Look, EG....I planted a tomato in the SWC today, a Volvograd! It's pretty early, but I'll put a milk jug over it at night, and I have three more of this same variety if I happen to lose this one. It was one of my larger ones, but after stripping it down and planting it deep, it looks kind of puny!


I had some "firsts" today!


My first potato broke ground today!


And my first bean!


The first morning glory.


And the first nasturtium. They are germinating much better from seed sown outside than from starting inside. Too bad I just planted all the rest of them inside :-(


Yes, I planted them yesterday, before I spotted the ones growing in the garden. In fact, I started an entire flat of nasturtiums and marigolds inside. I soaked the nasturtium seeds overnight and planted 15 trailing and 39 dwarf varieties, and 18 Crackerjack marigolds.

Yesterday in the garden, I planted one hill each of zucchini, yellow crookneck and Waltham butternut squash, and a hill of small sugar pie pumpkin. Then I planted one container of lemon cucumbers, a double row (7') of pole beans, and some spicy globe basil in the blue planter. I also set out four regular basil plants in the east garden.

Now I'm going to fertilize the roses, cook dinner and clean up the kitchen.

Then I'm going to soak in a hot bubble bath and go to bed early. I deserve it.



22 comments:

  1. Woohoo!!Granny did awesome and Annie is a chunk! She's giving you stink-eye too. This is my first time with beans and I really think they grow while you're looking at them once they break the surface. Pansies are my favorite flower. You couldn't show me enough of them.
    Ribbit

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  2. Sounds like the perfect kinda day!

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  3. Granny, it sounds like you deserve it. That doggy is really fat! Ha! I really like your tall buckets, 'cause they have a larger reservoir than the ones I made. I'll have to see if I can get some of those from my local McDonalds.

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  4. Nice blooms & doggy. Just think, soon the garden will be all in and you can sit back and enjoy.

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  5. Ribbit, Annie wants you to know she's on a diet. She lost a couple of rolls around her hips, but now they are coming back. I think Mr. H is sharing his breakfast with her again :-( That "stink eye" is saying "Lady, get that camera outta my face and let me sun bathe in peace!"

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  6. Granny,

    Wow you were busy today.
    Can you send some bees my way. I've only seen one in the last 24 hours.

    Liisa

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  7. Ahhh, Dan...now that the beds are filled, I don't really consider the garden work. If sprinklers wouldn't clog/break and flower beds would weed/edge themselves, and the city would pave my street weeds, life would be easy!

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  8. Bethany, I hope our warm weather sticks around...but not so warm as to ruin the spinach and peas!

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  9. EG, bite your tongue! You'll hurt sweet Annie's feelings! We think she's a bootiful, full hipped girl. No pickle buckets at McDonald's around here any more. These were old ones era 1994-97 that had been used to store French fry oil.

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  10. Liisa, I hope we do have bees this year. I'm planting a LOT more flowers!

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  11. Granny,
    The flowers look beautiful. I hope you feel like a new woman tomorrow.

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  12. Oy! Trying again, last comment got lost in cyberspace somewhere, so if this is a duplicate, just ignore...
    Anyway, Poor Annie looks positively anorexic. Don't you ever feed the poor thing?
    Hope you enjoyed the bubble bath, you earned it!
    Hm, maybe I'll plant some nasturtium seeds in the spots I was going to put the plants that STILL haven't sprouted.

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  13. Wow no bees until September? Ack. You must have hand pollinated all your squash. Your nasturtium reminds me that I need to plant mine. I'm going to just direct seed them along my fence. I hope they come up. I haven't grown nasturtiums in ages.

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  14. My 19 lb cat, Marvin, thinks Annie is perfect just the way she is. :)

    -Jen

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  15. Hi granny, I think i had one of Annies ancestors when I was a younger lad.:)I will have to dig through some old photos to find him. The Dauxhund is a very loyal pet. After all that work, you deserve to sit back and have a BM. I can usually accomplish as much as people half my age but it takes me two days to recover. :(
    John

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  16. Daisy, thanks. Actually, I feel like an OLD woman this morning ;-)

    SB, I know...the poor little thing is "snacking" on her low-cal dog food as we speak. She really isn't a big eater though, and her thyroid is working properly, she's just naturally a voluptuous little girl.

    Daphne, I didn't hand pollinate, the squash was planted really late so the bees took care of it just fine. I'm having no problems at all with direct seeded nasturtiums. I noticed the trailing variety I'd planted outside earlier were also up and running...they are the ones with a 3 of 18 germination inside.

    Jen, I'll bet Annie would just LOVE Marvin! We think Annie is perfect, too.

    John, Annie is really loyal, but her brother is a real dingbat. He's sweet, and we wouldn't trade him for anything, but Annie definitely got all the brains in that family. Oh, I agree...I can outwork any of my kids, but I pay for it when I try to get out of bed in the morning. The knees and the back get stiffer by the year.

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  17. About the buckets, I saw some at Jewel in the bakery department and asked about them. The worker said they recycle them by giving them back to the company.

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  18. Cheryl, I think the food grade buckets are getting harder and harder to find. I was lucky my oldest daughter is a mgr. at McD's and had a bunch of them in the office.

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  19. Good Work Granny! Annie looks quite content in that photo and she is probably wondering why you are not taking a little "lie down" in the sunshine with her instead of working so hard!

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  20. Kitsapfg, by the time I took her picture, I was ready to lie down in the sun with her!

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  21. Tisk, tisk. Poor dear looks absolutely starved! ;^)

    BTW a boiling pot of water will take out weeds in a snap along with their seeds and is good for the environment. Corn gluten can be sifted in early spring to help keep the weeds down too (it's a natural weed seed inhibitor).. just sayin'.

    Oh and the almond is beautiful! Hope you can start another one, seems a shame to lose it entirely.

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  22. Jenn, I've tried the boiling water, it didn't work. I even tried boiling salt water. I haven't tried the corn gluten, but did work in a weed pre-emergent once. I used it several times, even though it was supposed to control weeds for the entire year, and I swear it made the weeds grow stronger! Someday I might get my wish to just have the entire area blacktopped.

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