05.25.09

Spent the day at the Arnold Arboretum with my boys (including Bodhi) - I can never get over what a wonderful place it is!  Some of the lilacs were still in bloom and it makes me want to put a lilac bush where the Hosta currently is in the backyard.  Not sure if that will happen this year, but man, it would be awesome!  Lilac bushes always remind me of the book Socks by Beverly Cleary.  I love that book and am pretty sure I remember Socks' passion for lounging under the lilac bush by the front door of their house, among other things.

The backyard garden is looking great, if I do say so myself.  I am loving the addition of the raspberries, foxgloves, lupines, and peonies (last weekend.)  As mentioned earlier, I am a little obsessed with putting in a lilac bush, but will hold off for now.  I did go ahead and mulch everything today, along with throwing down some wildflower seeds just to see what happens.  My dream is to have a beautiful, overgrown garden, inspired by the ones I love in England - maybe we can figure out a small water feature at some point even!  But...I'm trying not to get ahead of myself.  

How cool is this?  One of the other gardeners at Bessie Barnes, Leon (I think), gave me a couple of broccoli and Swiss chard transplants today - he was thinning his rows!  So now, in addition to the cucumbers, tomatoes, mesculin, sugar snap peas, and scallions, we have some chard and broccoli.  I also went ahead and planted some cantaloupe and a watermelon!  I am psyched for the melons, but since we do not have very sandy soil, I'm not sure how well they will fair.  I still have some acorn squash seeds to try, along with green beans, but I worry that my eyes are bigger than my plot, so I'm not sure how everything will come together.  We shall see - I figure in the worst case scenario, all of the overflow will just have to go into pots and then our friends will be given green "gifts."  Or something.

Earlier tonight, my darling husband picked up some bamboo sticks so I can "build" a cage for the sugar snap peas, and I think it will also help with the tomatoes when they grow a bit bigger.  He also picked up some more basil and parsley along with some lavender to grow in pots because our first attempt at herbs in the quarter barrel has only resulted in cilantro and clover/weeds.  The plan for this week is to get the cage for the sugar snap peas built, and then fill out the rest of the plot with my remaining seeds.  After that, I'm sure it'll be time to thin the existing plants, and hopefully things will continue to flourish.  I look forward to getting all of my pots filled and thriving too.  I'm really digging the gardening...pun intended.  :-)