Sunday, June 7, 2015

When The Garden Looks Like Hail

A little bit of manicure can soothe the gardener's heart.





















There was no urgent need to mow the paths. I did it to make myself feel better about the shredded state of affairs.





















From the front porch I can look out over a tidy garden gaining substance and texture with each passing year.





















The big picture makes up for the mangled details.





















And the big details compensate for a close inspection.
















The unscathed cheer me on.



























I mowed all the paths in my garden and the sunny utility meadow. I skipped the Great Lawn. I really need to get over to the ridge top garden and mow those paths. That has been put off for the last two weeks on my only day off.

The morning was spent weeding the roadside vegetable garden. It didn't really need weeding. The mulch is quite effective. It helps my maintenance gardener self to have one small section of the wild cultivated gardens as close to perfect as I can make it.

Carrots were reseeded. The first sowing was a bust. More lettuce and my one small side dish of okra crop were also seeded. It is way too cool for okra up here, yet I persist in trying.





















I got ruthless and yanked half of the Ironweed that has come up in the vegetable garden. That daylily needs to go too. It is loaded with buds and will have to wait until after it has finished blooming. I'm only ruthless to a degree.





















I did dig up and move four clumps of Siberian Iris that had come up in the roadside vegetable garden. More flowers for the roadside.





















All kinds of good things find the tidy beds in the vegetable garden the perfect place for germination. I'm good with that. It provides plenty of free plants.

That Lush in the bottom left foreground is supposed to be a strawberry patch. It is now mostly wild flowers. That is how desirable real estate in the vegetable garden is.

If I want the strawberries back, I will need to get seriously ruthless.





















It's June now. I am a bit behind in planting the vegetable garden. My squash and cucumbers that were germinating in four inch pots got squashed by the hail. They will have to try and grow back a bit before I can tell if they are worth planting.

I still need to get new poles for the pole beans. That involves stopping to harvest some bamboo canes. I can't dither much longer. Growing vegetables up here is on a restricted time schedule.

If only, there were another day off in the week.





















But there isn't right now. Freshly mowed paths and a tidy roadside vegetable garden should get me through the week.


3 comments:

LostRoses said...

I find it helps if I squint when looking at my hail-shredded garden. You are very even-tempered over the whole thing!

Lola said...

Having things neat sure helps.

Christopher C. NC said...

LostRoses I get the same effect when I take off my weeding glasses. I have seen so much damage in the little time I have been here from late freezes, squashing by snow, grasshopper invasions, loose cows and... I am getting immune. The gardens always recovers and continue to put on spectacular displays.

Now if I could just do the same inside the house all would be well Lola.