Getting the garden in - finally

Gardening was the name of the game on the farm for the past couple of days.  All nature of garden, garden project, and garden maintenance was achieved.  Repairs to the greenhouse from accumulated windstorms were made.  New PVC connectors were purchased, PVC pipes were cut, and a 2" x 4" ridge board installed to keep the pipes in place, more secured, and better suited to withstand the wind that blows down the side of our hill.  In between entertaining little man and assisting with PVC maintenance and repair, I managed to get the greenhouse weeded.  It is amazing what nature and variety of seedling and transplant you are able to find when you move the overgrown squash transplants and weed out the grass and swamp weed that the heat of the compost pile just cannot kill.

At the front of the house is a hill which slopes toward the lake.  At the bottom of this hill is our garden.  Years ago the hill was hayed by hand as the slope is too steep for any kind of tractor.  When the haying stopped, the hill grew up and was burned every other year or so to keep trees from growing and thistle from taking over.  Nearest the house, this hill has some amazing soil.  We think that the old dry well (where grey water used to go before all the used water from houses started going into septic systems) used to be located here.  DH has been using this spot for the past couple of years as his experimental garden.  Last year he successfully grew sunflowers and one vegetable, although I can't remember which.  This year six blueberry plants which were left too long inside the garage were planted there.  I finally got to weeding the edge of the hill in hopes of planting some flowers and transplanting some rhubarb and discovered that two of them had survived.  I managed to get the herb garden weeded and started in on the flower bed in front of the house, but lunch and little man interrupted that project.

Thursday morning we managed to get into the garden.  Long overdue transplants and seed sowing occurred.  My leg and butt muscles are still sore on Saturday, reminding me that I spend far too much time in front of a computer and not enough time out in my garden.  We hand turned soil which was tilled three weeks ago, but settled in that time.  The soil was then raked, hoed, seeds or transplants placed and then packed in.  Thursday night, DH watered everything.  With no rain forecast for the next week we will continue to water with hopes of a flourishing garden throughout the summer.  While I was baking for farmers market on Friday, DH went down into the garden to prepare some more soil so that we can continue our VERY late transplanting on Sunday morning.  Our squash transplants haven't made it out of the greenhouse yet, pretty soon, we are going to have to take the side off the greenhouse and let the squash fall out over the lawn.  There is little hope of transplant success if we try to move the vines now.

A decision has been made, however, which will provide me with significantly more time to garden for the rest of the summer and give my family, my garden, my livestock and my well-being some long overdue attention!