I did not have a single massage appointment today. There are lots written in the book, and then crossed out. There was one that just stood me up. This does not mean I didn’t do any work, though.
Jim had some stuff on his agenda already. He had to go plane a board for rockers and help Jay load a chair in his truck. So, while he was gone I got busy out in the vegetable garden. We decided that today was the day we were going to add our soil amendments and mulch everything. We have been waiting and waiting for our customized fertilizer mix to come, and finally we gave up on them and went and bought the components for what we need, which wasn’t very much really, and distributed it over the vegetable garden beds.
We enjoyed a perfect day, partly cloudy with almost no breeze at all, temperatures warm but moderate. Since it was a perfect drying day, I did a load of laundry and hung it out.
We both saw the thrasher family bustling about the place. The parents have two chicks following them around. They really haven’t “got it” yet, and still receive all their food from the beaks of their harried parents. But there’s lot to eat out there, and it won’t be long before they are hunting for themselves.
I have to say the vegetable garden is looking splendid. Jim finally finished the rest of the flagstone paths, and they are a joy to walk on. Not only do I have a fairly weed free substrate between the beds, I also have my very own reflexology walk at the same time.
You need to take note of the asparagus, which is in the upper left corner of the above picture. This year it has gotten well over six and a half feet tall. Jim built a fence on the north to keep it from falling all over the paths. It works great.
Look at that broccoli! I peeled back the row cover in order to weed, add the soil amendments, and harvest the heads that have formed in the last week. I am including a close-up of one of the heads I picked today. The following photo is of a secondary head that formed after I harvested the main head last week. Notice how the leaves are succulent and not full of holes. That is because the row cover makes a physical barrier between the brassica and the cabbage looper butterflies. No eggs fall on the plants, so no little worms eat them to lace.
So, in addition to the soil amendments getting added, I weeded all eight garden beds, including the asparagus. That situation had gotten way out of hand. I used some mulch last winter for that bed that was not ready at all, and I got every kind of weed there is on the place coming up in the asparagus bed. It was quite a meditation to weed it, as I ended up crawling down the middle of the four foot wide bed between the two rows that are on each side. I was able to reach through the asparagus to weed out all the little infant grasses much more easily from the center. Above my head I could hear the hum of many busy bees and wasps, who were thoroughly enjoying the asparagus blossoms.
That one is a honeybee. Notice the bright orange pollen all over his pollen sacs. There were bumble bees and paper wasps and tachnid wasps and mason bees too.
After we got the soil amendments spread, we spread nice (hopefully clean) straw mulch all around the tomatoes, corn, melons, cucumbers, squash, chard, and beans. I’m too beat to go back out there and take a picture of it the way it looks now.
I also cleaned out the garden beds in front of the house, getting rid of all the spent foliage from the daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses, irises, colchicums and any unfortunate weeds that crossed my path. The yucca is putting on quite a display today.
You may notice the vineyard in the background of that picture. Also, to the left of the yucca are a couple of my day lilies, which will start blooming any week now.
I was absolutely stunned by the lilies out front. They are really going to town. The next picture is a perfect comparison shot of the difference between an oriental lily, a day lily, and an asiatic lily. That is what is in the following shot, in that order. The oriental lily is the tall gangly thing on the left. It will be blooming in a few weeks. The day lily is in the middle, and it already has begun blooming. This particular day lily is a lovely pale yellow, and you cannot discern its blossoms in this picture, they are hiding behind the oriental lily. The blooming show offs on the right are some asiatic lilies that came to me in a naturalizing mix. They have done splendidly, and propagated themselves lavishly. In front of them all is my patch of costmary.
I picked another bouquet that you can only have if you are a gardener.
Last, but not least, I must post this photo I took at our dinner table this evening. We enjoyed a sumptuous repast of garden greens in a salad with marinated sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and bleu cheese dressing served next to home made spicy indian meatballs in tomato puree. Jim got one of the bottles of the Marechal foch wine from 2008 out of the cellar. As I was enjoying the last bit of it after dinner, the sun came pouring through the north window and illuminated the wine. I got this picture, and I think it just about has it all: the color of the wine, the sun refracted through the glass, the reflection of the pergola outside on the surface of the wine.
Now, if you don’t mind, I believe I shall go take a nice bath with lavender and rosemary and peru balsam oils in it.
just looking at your beautiful garden makes me feel rejuvenated
I love this bouquet, it’s so dainty. Oh, to be a gardener. I wish they would do some raised beds for us here. I don’t know why we can’t have a garden on the roof like the rich condos do. We could even raise vegetables.
I am in awe: somebody who can actually spell ‘broccoli”.
What a lot of work you did and doesn’t it all look splendid. I love the long shots of your garden and that new path is a work of art. Like you say: pure reflexology. I too get ‘itchy feet’ when I see a nice path and just have to try it.
BTW, how many double paces when you go round them all in one loop? I would guess that you too cover 100 meters in about 60 DP’s. We were orienteers not too long ago and I still count every step I take. Not consciously, but I seem to have a ticker in my brain. 600 DP’s is a kilometer. 960 is a mile.
I noticed you have started filling in the holes in the brick edging. Tell me about the ‘row cover’. Is that plastic or fleece draped over those hoops?
This is a post after my own heart. I thoroughly enjoyed being shown round again. How about a seasonal header picture, whilst you are treating us?
May I make a suggestion to help with your indoor flower pictures? Particularly by a window: get a mirror you can hold in one hand or rest against your hip and catch the incoming light and angle it to reflect on the flower arrangement.
Don’t drop it and give yourself seven years bad luck.
Your sis jo.
I have a very severe spell checker that seems to be built into the computer. If I misspell something, it gets a red line under it as soon as I hit the space bar. This does not help for typos that are actually words.
I have been trying to get away from my habit of counting paces. last night while I was walking the labyrinth I noticed that when I wasn’t chanting I was counting my paces, so I immediately started counting my paces conscientiously as “one, one, one, one…”
The row cover is a polyester web that we purchase from Gardens Alive. This sort of thing is available all over, I just happen to prefer the size they have available (8x48ft.) as it winds up being exactly the right width to span my hoops with “tucking in” slack, plus half of the 48 foot length is perfect to cover one of our 20 foot beds with enough at the end to close the ends of the tunnels off effectively. ( Over the years I have gone from planks to flat rocks to long pieces of rebar to weight down the row cover. The rebar is by far the superior method, IMHO.) None of the other companies have row cover this wide. Six feet wide is not really enough to give things like broccoli and eggplant head room.
Jo, I barely got that header up there, I’m not sure I could change the picture every three months. I’m lucky to get a blog post written, much less fool around with widgets and headers and sidebar items.
I tried your mirror method the very next time I took a picture. It worked very well, but it was interesting to discover that in this house I only have ONE mirror that is not firmly attached to the wall.
I don’t mind at all – it sounds like you deserved it.
Yet another simple yet perfect flower arrangment…
*sigh*
I’d be jealous, if it weren’t for the fact that you’re just so lovely and wonderful that I know you deserve every exquisite thing in your life. I can only be jealous of people who are undeserving and ungrateful. 🙂
Having had the good fortune of meeting the lovely lady in person here in Seville, I agree that she deserves every exqusite thing in her life. Including Jim.
You guys are going to give me a swelled head. (Blushes) Also, it is clear that you have never come across my path when I was in a rage or snit. Then I’m not so lovely, more scary.