the Deck Garden





half-drowned forget-me-nots

We've had days and days of rain here. There are usually a few hours each day where there is no rain, and there may even be sunshine. Occasionally we even have a whole day of fine weather--inevitably, though, it would be a day when I didn't have time to garden. Either that or I was out of dirt. Growing up, you just couldn't run out of dirt because we had a whole huge backyard--dirt everywhere. Here, though, the backyard is just a little bigger than my office at work and the deck is about 2x the size of my office.

So, deck garden. With dirt imported from the nearest garden department that day.



I actually found some potting soil in the basement that had been left by the previous tenants, but it wasn't quite enough for me to finish planting things. It took a couple weeks for the dirt and the sunshine to allign, and they finally did this Saturday. I finished planting my flowers (a whole windowbox worth of begonias, plus the forget me nots and some blue salvia) and upgraded my cilantro (it was very grateful).

I'm slowly realizing that, like Shasta Daisies, the cilantro is happiest when I regularly harvest leaves. Regardless of what I'm cooking I try to go out periodically and harvest some cilantro and put it in the fridge to keep my little plant fat and happy. Seems to be working. I think I'll do that with the indoor chives, too.


half finished project and the final bag of dirt

I get an enormous amount of satisfaction from walking onto my deck, now. I don't have a vegetable garden (maybe next year) but I have some very happy herbs (who, thankfully, have been doing well with the regular deluges) and some very happy flowers.

However the squirrels like to bury their nuts in my winter onions so I brought that pot close to the house to discourage such unseemly behavior....If you visit me and you happen to meet a squirrel with onion breath you'll know that it's because he pulled up the wrong thing from his stash on my deck.

Pilgrimage.

I should have posted this ages ago! But I forgot, sorry! It's been that busy. April was a bit of a mess, and then when I turned the calendar to May the whole month was full before I even got there.
 

peach blossoms



I worked the MassHope homeschool conference for work--which meant work flew me north--and then Nick and his brother drove up and we all spent Sunday with my folks.

We introduced my brother in law to the Uconn Dairy Bar. I almost forgot about the Dairy Bar. Almost every time I'm in my old Connectiwegia home I beg my family to take me to the Dairy Bar. I've only found one place to get decent local ice cream down south (all the cows around here are beef cattle, I love steak and all, but beef cattle just don't make ice cream).

We almost didn't have the time--being there for only one day and having quite a bit of furniture to stuff into my in-laws 15 passenger van (generously on loan for this trip). 

The men folk wrestled with the furniture while Mom and I putzed around the garden (Mom let me dig some of her mint, lemon balm, winter onion, and garlic leaks!)

 Grape Hyacynth:

Finally, the furniture was tied up so it couldn't escape, and it was ice cream time.

The line was out the door when we arrived.



can you find them?

  It only took 15 minutes for them to blaze through the line, though. Very impressive. Great service, and great ice cream. It doesn't get much better than that.

 We had to rush off as soon as we got our scoops of creamy goodness so that we could meet some friends we were having over to dinner. But the ice cream escapade was soooo incredibly worth it.

So were the friends.

And the rushing around.

And the furniture.

And the family.

Yeah, it was pretty much just a good trip all around.

New Toy

We got a grill! Technically, this was an April developement--and yes, this is May now--but we almost immediately hit a spat of cold and wet weather. Figures. Still, our little propane grill is a much delighted-in addition to our home. Nick is quite good with it. We also just got a couple other pieces of furniture from my folks.  Since this week is packed to the gills, you won't see pictures for a while because the new pieces are a bit scattered and "in the middle" of things with nothing on them/in them and nothing in it's right place. We'll get there, though. Eventually. It's very exciting to get new things, so I chafe until I can play with them. Just like a little kid, I guess.