Solstice happiness

It was another gorgeous day in the garden yesterday. I cannot imagine a better way to celebrate the solstice than by working in the sun and fresh air in the garden.

As soon as Dan left for his class, I hit the vegetable garden, and I accomplished a lot.



I removed the floating row covers on the squash/pumpkins, which were outgrowing the existing setup, weeded, fertilized with fish emulsion, and redesigned the row cover setup to give them more room.



I thinned the broccoli and Brussels sprouts, transplanting some of the seedlings to better spots. I weeded in the pepper bed, and although it hurt, discarded several volunteer tomato seedlings.



I weeded in the cutting flowers and the herb bed, which is finally beginning to look like it will live, and gave everything a good watering. The plants are stilly tiny, but are finally growing. Again I wish I'd been using Neptune's Harvest fish emulsion fertilizer (2-4-1), which has higher phosphorus for better root development. I think the seedling's root develoment was better last year, and therefore the transplant shock was much less last year. Live and learn!




Then on to the Russian Sage hedge along the driveway. When we planted the hedge 3 years ago, we put down weed block fabric mostly in an attempt to keep the creeping Charlie out. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I won't be using this stuff again. Inspired by Mary, who claims to be obsessed with keeping her lawn edges neat, I edged this bed sharply, and mulched with shredded bark mulch.

I finished up by giving the flowers in the Holly and Grape Arbor beds a drench of fertilizer, and it was time to clean up and pick up the chicks! Time flies when you are having fun in the garden!