Garden report
I finally planted the third and fourth beds this afternoon, and put some plants in the perennial bed by our front walk. I had asked Ernie at the nursery to order nine lamb's ear plants(Stachys byzantina "Silver Carpet") for me so that I'd be sure of getting all I needed for a nice full border. They came in last week, and Thursday was the first day I was able to go get them. While I was at the nursery, I also picked up some tomato preplants (a Brandywine, which is an Amish heirloom tomato; two Romas; and a yellow tomato named "Taxi" that I could not pass up since it reminded me of Davey's family.)
So I was all set to plant, but as soon as I got home on Thursday it began to pour down rain. We've gotten almost two inches of rain since Thursday night, which has made planting pretty inconvenient. It finally stopped for a little while this afternoon, so I got out there with the trowel as soon as I could. I put in all the lamb's ear and I'm so pleased with the way they look. Back in the potager, I got in all the tomatoes (and the watermelon plant that I got in a moment of insanity, because the little icebox watermelon on the plastic pick looked so cute!)
I also planted some basil, marigolds, nasturtiums, and more garlic. The cool thing about all those plants is that they are supposed to help repel pests as well as be good to eat. I am intercropping them with the tomatoes and other plants. I want to plant some parsley this week, too.
I can't believe how late I'm getting all this stuff in, but this spring has been unusually cold and damp for us (I don't think we cracked sixty degrees today.) Normally I wouldn't mind this, I kind of like cool weather, but it seemed kind of a waste of time to plant seeds and transplants for warm-weather crops when it was so cool. I'm holding back a little while longer on transplanting my eggplant -- they are still so tiny -- and I stuck some 2-liter soda bottles (bottoms cut out) over the smallest tomatoes to keep the heat in and the critters out.
I hope all this pays off with yummy vegetables this summer.
