Happiness is Gardening

We had a fabulous weekend for gardening and enjoying the unofficial beginning of summer. The new garden bed by the grape arbor is 99% done following today's installation of a fieldstone pathway to the hose bib. I am so pleased with how it looks, I just love it. I have 3 lavender plants to go in, and have one other space to add something too, then it is done but for the inevitable tweaking.

Saturday Kyle and his girlfriend Meaghan were visiting; it was great to see Kyle to congratulate him in person on passing his driving exam. As soon as his mother gets him added to the insurance, he'll be able to come and visit much more easily.

We had planned to get a load of shredded bark mulch for the front garden bed, and Kyle and Meaghan graciously helped spread it out. We weeded and fertilized, then spread it just before the flowering crab began to lose its blossoms. The petals began falling yesterday afternoon and look dramatically pretty against the dark brown mulch. Sunday we worked much of the day in the vegetable garden, turning over the soil with the broadfork, and adding gypsum to help lighten the clay. Dan did most of the broadfork work, I added the gypsum and then followed with a cultivator, breaking up clods and pulling weeds. Had it not been for a rain shower Saturday night/Sunday morning, we would have finished the vegetable garden, but we decided to let the wet soil dry a bit and work on other projects. I checked the soil temperature, it was 66 F. The squash bed, which I'd turned earlier in the season, was 72F. We decided it was warm enough to plant, so I planted Winter Luxury Pumpkin and New England Pie Pumpkin, 2 hills of Costata Romanesca Zuchinni, and some melon, Prescott Fond Blanc.

Dan made little hot caps out of gallon milk jugs for the melon/squashes/pumpkins to keep them warm. I keep hoping I'll strike it lucky with a melon, because I LOVE melon. We also set out the peppers in the pepper bed, all Johnny's varieties. Lipstick pimento type, Carmen Italian bulls horn type, and some cubanelle peppers. We added floating row cover over the hoops to make it nice and warm, and to protect the peppers from the sun. They looked pretty happy tonight when I peeked in to look at them.

We ended the weekend with out traditional Memorial Day potluck in our friend Karen's lovely backyard garden, enjoying the fine weather, good food and great company. Happiness is being in a garden.