Counting Chickens

You are not supposed to count your chickens before they hatch...or your vegetables before they grow I would guess.

I have seemed to jump the gun in the past, but darn it, now that 75% of the garden is planted I feel fairly confident that this year will be successful. The rain has returned, but the past two weeks have been glorious. Warm, sunny, beautiful weather has made planting the garden so easy and relaxing. It is hard to describe the delightful feeling of that first handful of sun warmed earth in my hands. It just feels like a promise. Although it warmed up to around 70 degrees, it never felt truly hot as daily breezes off the bay kept it cool enough to be comfortable. And things are growing!

The beans are already up, as are onions, and lettuces. While weeding yesterday I could see that the carrots are also starting to sprout. Can't wait to see everything else sprouting up through the ground. We are trying something different this year with the tomatoes. We have two plants in those upside down things, and the rest will be in a "tomato house" - a plastic covered frame that I am building myself. An experiment to see which method works better. We'll have to water them of course, but this should eliminate the blight causing dirt from getting flung up onto the plants during a heavy rain. I'm so tired of losing tomatoes to blight.

This past Saturday my daughter and I went to the Sustainable Connections plant sale. Wow! The plants were beautiful, and so well priced. We came away with six tomato plants, one jalapeno, three bell peppers, a couple of squash starts, a little pot of artichoke starts, and a half dozen or so herb starts. Twenty four plants in all - plus two flower bulb freebies my daughter picked out. That was all I could carry. Next year we will be much better prepared. I noticed some of the more experienced shoppers had brought their own little red wagons to carry their selections. There were also flatbed carts available. That will be my choice I think, since the selection of bedding plants was ten times as amazing as the vegetable starts and I left behind so many beautiful plants and flowers.

It is just beautiful around here with so much in bloom! Again this year the Golden Chain Trees next to the house are loaded with blooms, a golden canopy over the side yard. The lilac is a beautiful counter point to all the gold. in front of the house, the second rhody is blooming and buds are starting to open on the one at the back of the house. Azaleas are blooming golden orange and red. I can see that the bearded iris will have some nice flowers this year. Everything else is just growing like crazy in this warm weather. The clematis and honeysuckle are thick and should put on a good show later in the summer. The flower beds are looking ragged, although lush...being neglected for the more important task of planting the vegetable garden has let the buttercup take over in the beds against the house.

The wonderful weather has already led to several 'al fresco' dinners - grilled of course. I hope just the first of many more. I discovered a simple and tasty way to grill vegetables - on a skewer of course - after preparing the veggies I just brushed them with a vinaigrette and let them marinate for a while before grilling. Yum.

The little flock of Rufous hummingbirds that spend all day fighting over the feeders are just gorgeous. It is not uncommon to get buzzed while sitting at the outdoor table, and they have provided a lot of entertainment these past weeks. I hope they will stay all summer this year.

I have also been delighted to have my dear friend Corinne helping out in exchange for some space in the garden. She has brought extra companionship and great conversation to the farm, as well as broccoli, English cucumber, and Walla Walla Sweet onion sets and a variety of seeds to share. It will be fun watching our garden grow.

One other little note - on Saturday I also had a chance to chat with Sara, Sustainable Connections' food & farming outreach coordinator. There will be three or four openings available this fall in their Food to Bank On program - a three year program that provides training, mentoring, and markets for new and beginning farmers. Not sure if we will be accepted this year, but I'll be putting in my application as soon as I can in the fall.