This Year's Gardens, Part 5

 I had grand plans for the garden front this weekend. We'd get compost, we'd till the gardens, I'd get the zucchini planted, and on and on and...

Yeah.

It rained Friday. It rained Saturday until well into the afternoon. 

Too wet to till.

Sunday, both Warren and I were in a slump all morning for a number of reasons: his workload, my workload (volunteer, but still), computer problems (mine), health issues (mine, obviously), blah blah blah. At one point (the low point on the computer problem), I put my head down to my desk and started crying, which is not like me. We were both struggling.

But Sunday was also glorious, sunshine and blue skies.

I looked at the brilliant day outside. "Why don't we at least sit outside on the deck and enjoy the sun?" Warren shrugged. Okay. 

It was better sitting outside on the deck steps. But we were still struggling. Warren halfheartedly suggested we go out for ice cream. I halfheartedly shrugged. Then I sat up.

"We have ice cream! Let's make sundaes and have them for lunch!" 

Now we were starting to move. Sundaes for lunch! Sunshine! blue skies! 

The sundaes were enough to push us both a bit. We took the deck furniture out of its winter tarps and set up the deck. Progress! Then my sons called for Mother's Day, first Ben, then Sam. Joy! More energy as I sat in the sun and talked with them. 

After finishing the second call, I said to Warren, "Now I'm ready to garden." I walked down to the shed in back and brought up the four planters I scored for free three years ago and arranged them on the patio. More progress.

I couldn't till the gardens, but I could get the garden started. 

With Warren's help, the planters went from this

to this:

From front to back: Bibb lettuce, Bibb lettuce, Finger carrots (a small carrot), and Paris Romaine.

At this point, Warren felt he was ready to go into his shop and make some progress on crotale stands. I decided I felt good enough to transplant the globe thistle I had sprouted earlier. I had four ice cream cartons of sprouted seeds (well, three hearty ones and one which didn't do a whole lot); I knew where I wanted them.

I spent the next hour under those blue, sunny skies planting. Two went in the back flower bed (one of those two being the one that underperformed). How great that I was deep in the daylily bed?

That blue gardening seat? Best garden purchase ever.

One carton went out front in in the bed anchored by the redbud. Earlier this spring I had relocated the agastache (hyssop) to the back flower bed, because it wasn't doing well with the redbud. So there was extra room in that bed, allowing for the globe thistle to go up front and not under the redbud.

For the record, the ice cream containers made excellent sprouting containers. They have depth, so you don't have to worry about them outgrowing the container too soon. To plant, all I had to do was cut down the side, peel the side walls off, and then slide the seeds/soul off the bottom into the hole I had already dug.

One container mid-peel on the wall. 

All told, I probably spent an hour and a half outside. It was glorious. Warren came out of his shop from time to time to check on me out of love, out of watchfulness (besides the truck analogy, Tim also last week said it is time to step back from doing so much), out of pleasure that the slumped morning had turned so spectacularly (he too was making progress in his shop). 

And that, my friends, is where the gardens stand as of this morning.