May 25, 2009: A Little of This, A Little of That

Those who have been reading my blog for a while know my neighbor, Pat. For new readers, I'll fill you in a bit. Pat and I have lived next door to each other for over 20 years. She's nine years my senior, at 80 years of age, but has always led an active life of golfing and fishing. Her husband passed away last year, and Pat continues to live in her big house, with the big yard, all alone. Well, alone except for her new puppy, Bandit. Bandit is half Chihuahua and half Dachshund.......a Chiweenie.

Two weeks ago, Pat had to have arthroscopic knee surgery, and a few days later she ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. Now her pneumonia is gone, but she's still having a lot of problems walking.

Pat's never been a vegetable gardener, but she loves the fresh vegetables I share with her, so when I ended up with more tomatoes than I had room for this year, she had her grandson bring in a pickup load of compost, and make a nice fertile strip along our shared fence for a few of my extra plants. She also hinted that she'd kind of like some green beans and zucchini there, too. I planted six of my tomato seedlings there last week, and today I added two rows of Royal Burgundy bush beans and two hills of Black Beauty zucchini.


Pat's new garden, with bush beans in the foreground, determinate tomatoes in the center, and zucchini at the back.


Her six tomatoes are 2 Homestead, 2 Marglobe, 1 Persey and 1 Market Miracle.


My side of the fence is filling in well.


Today I moved the garden bench and a small table to the corner of the garden. Once it gets hot, it will be shaded by the pole beans and cucumbers, a cool place to sit and drink my morning coffee.


The flower garden (along the fence on the left) is finally beginning to show some growth with the past two warmer days. The lilies are almost ready to bloom, one bud is showing color. The pot on the concrete blocks has a Minigold tomato, with a few bush beans at its base. It's on the blocks, as the butternut squash in the bed behind it will soon cover the entire area with its large leaves.


Look, Toni! Here are three of your pink hollyhocks in the back, and two white ones in the front. There is another group planting at the back of my east garden.


The west garden has pots of dwarf varieties of tomatoes on the irrigation water cover, Ottawa cranberry beans against the fence, a Market Miracle tomato in the green bucket, and the ? Dwarf Champion or Husky Red Cherry ? tomato in the white pot. That's the only tomato that I forgot to mark, so I'll have to wait for it to fruit before I can identify it. I haven't yet decided if I'll plant flowers in front of the white pot, or transplant some basil to that spot. I have quite a few Four O'clocks, in soil blocks, that have just sprouted. They might look pretty there, or they may grow too tall. Decisions, decisions! I wish I'd started more marigolds.


The other half of the west garden is devoted to two hills of zucchini. These are Black Beauty, and the other (not shown) hill is Grey zucchini. Only one of the Grey survived transplanting, and it's not looking so good. I put a couple more seeds in its hill today.


Otto and Annie really enjoyed today's warm weather and occasional sunshine.


Leona is growing! She's eight inches tall now, nearly 4" taller than she was when we got her!



Leona on 5/14 and 5/24. She goes out in the garden for her sunshine each day, but still comes in at night. We're still having night temperatures in the 40s, which is absolutely unheard of here in the Columbia Basin!


If you only have one cosmos, is it a cosmo?


It must be spring, the roses are blooming. They smell so sweet, like raspberries.


Oops! I almost forgot to show you my thyme! It's a beauty this year, measuring over a yard in width and 18" high.


27 comments:

  1. I think it's very nice of you to plant some things for Pat, as it sounds like she sure is having a rough time with her health right now! Good neighbors are hard to find....

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  2. EG, I'm more than happy to do it for her, she's such a sweetheart. Besides, when she thinks I've been working too hard, she makes me delicious iced coffee with creme brulee and makes me sit on the patio with her to rest my weary bones ;-)

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  3. Granny you are a good friend. We would all be blessed to have someone like in our lives. Oh wait we are blessed you are a part of our lives. ;-)

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  4. That thyme is massive! Pat's garden is looking good and how nice of you to put it in for her. My neighbor literally wants a dirt garden and to cut down all the trees. The other side has a hay field. We live in a diverse neighborhood to say the least!

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  5. Awww, Liisa. That's so sweet of you to say that :-)

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  6. Dan, I love Pat's yard, and it almost seems like an extension to my own. She has massive sycamore and English walnut trees, while my own rather small (in comparison) back yard is all grass and garden. The neighbor on the other side is hidden behind his falling down fence. Nice people, but definitely not proud of their yard. They did take six of my extra tomato plants, maybe I can turn them into gardeners! The people behind us are also behind a fence. When our old fence got crushed by the falling tree, they got a glimpse of my small garden. Now they have plowed up the entire lot behind their garage and put in a garden of their own. So I've managed to get three neighbors interested in growing some of their own food!

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  7. So nice that your getting your neighbors to start gardening! Pat's garden looks great.

    Do you grow your tomatoes in those green pots, or are the pots only for protection but the plants have their roots in the ground?

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  8. I love that you are converting your neighbors! My neighbor on the East is a big gardener, on the West side, not so much. Many of my problems with invasive plants come wandering over from his side, sigh.

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  9. What a great neighbor and friend you are! And you can tell she appreciates it! Everything is looking good, Granny, hope your warm weather comes back!

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  10. I love that you have gotten people interested in gardening. If only I would do that. I'm not a very good advocate. I do grow things in full view of others though. I did notice two new gardens in the neighborhood this year. It is probably that vegetable gardening is hip now.

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  11. Gardening can be contagious! I am personally very happy to spread the infection. :D

    I am glad Pat and you are neighbors and friends. It sounds like she needed a friend with her recent health challenges.

    Garden is lush and beautiful despite the abnormally cool weather. My heat lovers are all a bit confused by it all as well. It has been overcast and damp here as well as cool. Brings the slugs out in droves. Luckily, I have the chickens now to toss the slugs to and they think I have given them gold! LOL!

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  12. What a nice and neighborly thing to do! We could all use friendly neighbors like you Granny!

    I love the shots of your own garden, everything looks so alive and beautiful!

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  13. Bless you, Annie, for helping your neighbor, Pat, so.

    Your garden is wonderful. Nothing less than gorgeous. And healthful too! And the right price too!

    Best,

    Tony

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  14. Angela, the pots are bottomless. I used most of them as "self watering containers" last year, and they didn't work for me. The tomatoes eventually became root bound in them and died. I had put a few in leftover buckets, with the bottoms almost completely removed, and they did great. The roots can go right on into the ground, they're up where it's easy to water them, and also high enough to grow something below them (I have bush beans and lettuce under four of them). This year I have 12 plants in buckets, so I'll let you know how it works out.

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    Ali, by keeping Pat's strip weeded and filled with veggies, I don't have Bermuda grass encroaching from that side. I was hoping the neighbors to the north would put their garden right up to the fence, but they left a big strip of quack grass next to the fence....it travels :-)

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    Erin, today we get rain. I might have known, I watered everything yesterday. I'll probably be complaining about slugs next.

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    Daphne, I am always so surprised, when we go for rides around our town, how few gardens I see. Huge expanses of grass, lots of trees and flowers, but no vegetables. Where I live is rather rural, and up until this year I don't think anyone on our block grew veggies. One man does grow raspberries and grapes. I've had veggie garden all my adult life. I planted my first garden in 1958!

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    Kitsap, you sent us your west side rain today. I just watered yesterday. You could have let me know you were sending it, the weatherman said it would just be clouds. ;-)

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    Fred, just give your garden another month, and you'll be surprised at how quickly it grows. You've done a beautiful job of fixing up your plot. My current garden was just lawn and a big maple tree less than three years ago.

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    Tony, thank you! You always say the nicest things, you've brightened my rainy day :-D

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  15. Wow, what a lovely garden. I really like how you have made use of your space. I noticed that you have short fences around your plants. Is that to keep the dogs out? Or perhaps rabbits? I would like to do something similar with my garden this year. Last year, even though my gardens are raised 24" above the ground, the local rabbits learned that they could get a nice snack if they jumped up there. Boy, was I surprised the first time one leaped out!

    Also, what varieties of roses are you growing? They are lovely.

    Happy gardening. :)

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  16. Thank you, Eleanor. Yes, the fences are to keep my dogs out, as well as the neighbor's new puppy who often comes to visit. The entire garden was fenced until this spring, but it made it too difficult to move the garden cart in and out. The unfenced area contains mostly larger permanent plants, such as raspberries and strawberries, and the barrel containers, so I didn't worry about removing the fence on that side. The small fencing will protect the other plants until they are large enough the dogs can't pull them out, dig them out or lay on them. Sometimes the small fences are for keeping the rabbit IN! Our pet rabbit gets some time in the lettuce bed on occasion ;-)

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  17. Hey Granny, I see you have been very busy this past week. Your garden looks great despite the cold weather that you had.

    It's so nice to have good neighbors like you! We live in a very friendly neighborhood as well. It's much different then when I lived on the farm...but, I really like it!

    Well, gotta a ton of gardening to do!! You won't believe how much my garden grew while we were gone!

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  18. Gran, you're giving new meaning to the phrase, "Good fences make good neighbors." It's always nice to have neighbors you're close to.

    BTW, Leona looks really happy!

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  19. Robin, I saw your awesome spinach and strawberries! I'm still harvesting spinach, and I picked my first strawberries this week. Not big, beautiful berries like yours though. My everbearing ones always start off small, then get bigger later in the season.

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  20. Thomas, isn't Leona looking beautiful? It's stopped raining now, I need to get her back into the sunshine.

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  21. Granny, that is so wonderful that you shared your love of gardening with her, and now it's spread over the fence. I can imagine how fresh vegetables would cheer me in those tough circumstances.

    Well, come to think of it, fresh veggies cheer me up now, and I haven't gone through anything near as trying as Pat.

    Leona is doing so well under your care. Why am I not at all surprised? :)

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  22. What a sweet friend you are!

    Those roses are breathtakingly gorgeous! I love them! And your veggie garden is filling in really nicely. You're sure to have quite the abundance od yummy food.

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  23. Hannah, I love those roses! I only have four rose bushes, well five if you count the stickery monster out by the shed, the one that Mr. Granny says he's going to mow down. Anyway, they have all been here about 20 years, and probably should be taken out and replaced. I just can't bear to part with them. The one that isn't blooming yet is a floribunda, and it is such a pretty color, and always loaded with blossoms. The yellow one has never been large or very healthy, but it spent a year with the compost pile next to it, and now it's looking good! Thar orange-red one has the most wonderful aroma.

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  24. Meredith, fresh veggies cheer me up too, whether I'm eating them or just looking at them ;-)

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  25. Granny, your garden is coming along nicely! And what a great neighbor you are for planting a garden on her side of the fence. I am sure she will really appreciate it when she's able to get around better and go out to pick fresh veggies to eat. We need more neighbors like you in this world :-) HUGS!

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  26. Annie - how wonderful that you could get Pat started on her own garden and I'm sure it will be fun to watch the progress of her garden along with your own. I love to plant other places, and spent most of my gardening time this past week on other gardens beside my own. It's like leaving a little bit of yourself and a little piece of beauty in spots around the world. The downside is that my own garden is lagging behind! Finally got an hour this morning before work to get the cucumbers in, but need to tell myself to work in my own garden a bit! Your's is looking great, Linda

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  27. Judy, *hugs* right back atcha!

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    Linda, last year I planted zucchini, bush beans and cucumbers for Pat, on her side of the fence. Everything grew well, but the soil had never been amended,so I expect her harvest to be even better this year. I planted my cucumbers against my side of the fence, so she'll have easy access to all she wants of those. I have so many jars of pickles and relishes from last year's garden, I doubt I'll can any this year.

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