#August Garden

 Still Hot. But that's okay. Lots of arranging and rearranging in the garden areas can happen now. I have to admit that I love the gardening foreplay: Planning, figuring out how to store all the bits and pieces I'll use this year. Big stepping stones used as bucket covers for seedlings too young to survive a downpour. Plywood, unwieldy yes, but perfect to lay across four buckets of those fragile seedlings. Concrete blocks and a two-by-four will balance four fabric baskets of potatoes. Shovels and trowels, rakes and claws, clippers and cutters, hoses and watering cans, vermiculite + peat moss + compost, worm castings and fish emulsion. A sprayer of soapy water and one of vinegar. Plastic containers for the garden twine, scissors, markers, paper, reading glasses (!), labels, piks, stuff. You know, all that stuff!

I love spending time mixing dirt, filling up the buckets in the raised beds, and the ones that will hold court on the ground. Planting seeds. Marking them. Making notes to put into the laptop: Date planted, days to germinate, number of days until harvest. Reading my books to be sure plants play well together. Moving around those that are more friendly to others. 

Every morning I take a soak in the hot tub around 7:30. Rocco reminds me if I'm busy working. Then I take a walk around the gardens, evaluate what's happening, and make a plan for that day's "tend the gardens" work.

Almost always I'll have to water, unless we are being blessed with decent showers. I check the radar and the forecast. If big rains are coming I set an alarm on my phone so that I get back out there and cover those fragile seedings in time. I am so spoiled. I'm thankful for the technology that helps me garden well, but sometimes I think I'd be better off "roughing it" in preparation for a time that all this ready information is not available.

Speaking of roughing it, no time spent in the garden is complete without the pool cool-down. Rocco waits patiently for this part, too. See that tanning ledge in the foreground, right under the umbrella? That's his spot and he takes his pool guard job quite seriously.

👩‍🌾

Little by little I am creating this Fall 2020 Garden. I'm loving the anticipation of what is to come, but equally enjoying the tending.

#DeckDock

 TIC TOK. And so it begins. 

We bought this house in 2010, quite unintentionally! As happy renters unburdened by homeownership, we one day motored along this stretch of the canal and saw a small "For Sale by Owner" sign. It seemed to be hidden, placed almost as if they weren't sure yet. But we were hooked! Since then we've remodeled all of it except the kitchen. We put in a pool, painted, rearranged, painted again - you get the idea.

The patio, deck, and dock have been power washed countless times. Sun-warped boards replaced. Scews reset. Until finally this day came. Rip out the old and in with the new.

Pretty bad, right? 

Here is the end of the beginning:

Purely an aside: As you can see, there is really no soil- it is all sand. For that reason alone, my raised garden beds make the most sense. Trying to grow vegetables in sand is akin to trying to brush your teeth with a toothpik. 

So! Stay tuned for the makeover! 

#WALK WITH ME!

 

I started a new blog within this very blog you are reading. It is called Walk With Me, which is dedicated to one of my passions- walking for exercise. I hope you can visit here from time to time and tell me in the comments about your own walking adventures.

Find the link right over there on the right of your screen →

#July Garden

They are tired. 

Worn out. 

Depleted.

And hot.

Like, really HOT.

The gardens, I mean. 

When the weather forecast says 90-something, feels like 100-something, you know it is past time to retire any struggling plants.

I've dug up most and they are keeping company in the composter. This morning though I spotted a baby cantaloupe, so fingers crossed!

 

Otherwise, it is time to start giving everything a rest and let the torrential downpours of the rainy season wash all the growing areas clean.

There are bush beans still with flowers and tiny green beans. I don't think they will be able to mature but I'll leave them for a bit and see what happens. Right beside them is a big Jalapeno plant that is producing like crazy. Hubs made poppers last night and I just about couldn't eat them- serious heat there. 

Today was a rainy day with not much sunshine. Guess that doesn't make for great photos but when the muse strikes. . . .

The two Lockspur plants that grace the steps to the dock have also grown heat-tired. They are going to be a bear to get out of their containers as they've got to be totally root-bound.

Today I bought these two Curcuma Ginger plants as the Lockspur successors. I think a couple weeks of living in some freshly composted soil will make them robust with color. 

I found this Coleus arrangement that I'm going to repot and place in the center of the deck table.

Ouch- I just remembered I broke my rule of 'no more plantings until September' - found this cucumber bush that was just begging for a home. It will live near the cantaloupe and we'll see what happens.

I think that's about it! We have corn that produced a few ears that haven't matured so those will go this week. There are still two burlap bags of potatoes. It will be interesting to see how they do in the heat.

Even though we've gone completely "raised beds" now which means using bagged soil, in my mind, I still feel like this is the time to give the Earth a rest. And I'll have one for myself, too!

#Night 4; July 2020 Vacation

It was a rainy, dreary evening. And we had a blast.

We parked ourselves right under the Edison Beach House building to hide from the weather. 

It was kind of like spying on Mother Nature (et al)

This is the Pier again, taken with the long lens from under the Edison Beach House.

Girls getting high on the beach. (Told you I am nosy)

Thank you for a wonderful Anniversary Day.

I love being married to you!

AND NOW THIS!