Covid Journal, Days 73 & 74: Garden Talk

It's hot. 70 in the early morning and just gets hotter as the day progresses.

So we have been making the best of the cool morning hours, getting up at daybreak instead of sleeping til 7. It has been an easy change so far and has made garden work much easier. We are in the gardens by 7 and finished work there by 9 or 9:30.

The air feels soft, and smells sweetly of honeysuckle, wild rose and a bit from my peonies. This morning I stood looking at the wild brushy patch just below the lower garden. Such a variety of plants in there! Honeysuckle, elderberry, multiflora rose, Joe Pye weed, goldenrod, wild aster, jewelweed, blackberries, raspberries, some garlic escaped from the garden...the list could go on and on. The growth is so thick it's almost impenetrable, but what riches for wildlife.

We are almost finished planting. This morning we put in corn, butternut squash and sunflowers. Yesterday we put in more tomatoes, the peppers, yellow squash and zucchini, leeks, some onion plants a neighbor gave us, cucumbers, and filled in where the beans didn't all come up. We still need to plant late cabbage, pumpkins and watermelon. And I have to plant my herb garden but those seedlings are still tiny so no rush there.

The flower gardens are doing okay although no new plants added this year.  I only bought 2 flats of annuals--petunias and begonias-- at the grocery store and those are going in planters. One garden got pretty much ruined when we had so much rain and it got almost washed out. It will be a project for next year. Here's a look at some of what's growing.

 There are a lot of volunteers in this flower bed that I have left where they planted themselves.

 The old crock may not have flowers this year. Or maybe I will put some zinnia seeds in it.

 The AC adapter for my laptop finally came so I can at quit writing on this phone. I admire those who do it all the time!

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