April Showers...

These cold days and cooler nights have kept me in pause as I wait for the warm summer (or at least temperate spring) to finally arrive. Planting crops like tomatoes and okra before the weather is right can kill them off fast. So, I've been waiting for the winter to finally, truly, break.
  
In the meantime, however, I have planted my flower garden.

Let it Be Philosophy

Where I live the weather likes to change often and fast. So, when I planned out my gardening to dos I had no idea that it would go from 80 degrees to 30 within a matter of a night.

Seriously, it was sunny and beautiful one day and snowing the next. 


But, while I sat on my lazy...um...rear end, nature kept on keepin' on. 

Oh yeah, and this gives me a good opportunity to introduce a new photography style to my blog. Thanks to a very good recommendation by my friends over at westervin  I now have a really cool photo app on my phone that allows me to take some rad vintage looking photos. Thanks for the recommendation guys!

The top  photo shows the cucumber and tomato progress. As you can see, they are doing very well. I'll be taking the top off soon and letting them grow sans greenhouse. 

The bottom photo is a picture of my hostas in the flower garden. I haven't even touched this garden and it's already springing (get it..spring..get it) up flowers.

How am I Doing You Ask...

...and I answer hesitantly, "could be doing better". 


This weekend was supposed to be a weekend of tilling and prepping. But, alas, it was filled with illness and this bedridden gardener was unable to play in the dirt. 


Never fear! I am well and able to make my next move. I am hopeful that I will not only till and prepare my plots this upcoming weekend but plant my flowers as well. If all goes as planned by next week I will have two plots ready for the growing. 


I leave you with a few words of wisdom. Head them well.

"Bulb: potential flower buried in Autumn, never to be seen again."

"Hoeing: A manual method of severing roots from stems of newly planted flowers and vegetables."
- Henry Beard

"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows."
- Doug Larson 

Needle and Thread

The gardener stood in front of the carousel for fifteen maybe thirty minutes, though to him it seemed like hours. He would bend way down to read the packets on the bottom then stand very tall, almost on his toes, to read those on top, and only after carefully examining the selection in front of him would he reach out to turn the carousel. Each time it would squeak as if it were happy to be touched.

The gardener must choose his selection carefully. Once selected there is no turning back. The whole season hinges upon the varieties the gardener finally deems fit for his land.

Arriving home the gardener begins to fill with the joy of anticipation. The gardener quickly sets to work prepping the bed of soil. Small compact peat pots are set up in a beautiful line and the water is slowly poured over them.

The small pots begin to expand, filling with the life-giving water. With a gentle tug, the gardener releases the mesh pots exposing the soil within.

Carefully, the gardener sows the seeds, three tomato and one cucumber per pot, into the peat. With a brush of the fingertip they are covered and ready to sprout. 

  

Finally, with a click of the plastic top, the procedure is finished. Every pot is watered, every seed is planted, and nature is left to run its course. 

I brush off my hands and walk away, eagerly waiting the first sight of green.

Seeds!!!

As promised, week one of my four week venture to plant my garden has come to a fruitful (or should I say vegetable) end. With four varieties chosen and paid for I have finalized my seed selection.