Raced outside this morning to see if the fishing line deterred the deer. It worked! At least for now. Darn things ate half of my peppers and cukes to the ground. After checking the line, I watered the potted tomatoes, plucked some worms from the greens and ate a handful of blueberries. The birds were getting the red ones before they turned blue, so I wrapped 5 of 6 bushes in bird netting. Bulk of the berries should be ripe by Friday - Yum!

Wah - its so cold here still and we are SO far behind anyone else. Only thing I might do is go out and get some greens or some lettuce. And maybe take a peek at my favas, though I'm sure that's just wishful thinking and they won't be ready for at least a week.
Stacey

Early in the day I was grieving the ponding in the fields from the rain...things were looking so nice.
I cut some broccoli heads and ate a sugar snap pea off the vine. I also squished a lot of CPBs again and aerated the soil around some melons. The wheat strips planted for wind and spray barriers are really neat.

Today was a shopping day, but while out I picked up some extra plastic pots, a big bag of potting soil, tomato cages, and some small potted vegs: A Big Boy tomato (my little beefsteak seedling is looking pitiful after a late and unexpected frost we had recently, so I'll just replace him with this nice, healthy Big Boy), a burpless cuke, a small rosemary, and a yellow bell pepper.

With this cold weather, I don't think my red bell seeds are ever going to germinate, so I'll just plant the yellow bell instead and wrap him up with a chunk of frost blanket until I can trust the night-time low temps a bit more. Likewise, my burpless cuke seeds don't seem to want to germinate, nor my rosemary. So, little nursery plants with night-time cold protection it is!

Fortunately, my Super Bush tomato seedlings seem to be heartier than the beefsteak was, and all 3 of them are still looking okay (as is the Sweet 100 cherry, but it was a nursery stock as well)... plus I have 3 more just like them still sitting in the greenhouse, so I may just stick them in big pots on the deck. Those extra cages I bought today will come in handy. They say the weather will be better tomorrow (less windy, warmer, and more sunshine!), so if they're right (fingers crossed!), it will be a great day for putzing around in the gardens. I still have so many flower seedlings to get into the deck pots and the flower borders, and some kitchen-garden refurbishing to do.... So many projects, so little time!

I hilled my potatoes, although I think they need still more hilling, then watered my raised beds. I sprayed Pyola on my greens and carrots. I came out later, though, to find that all of the newer sprouts were gone. And it's too late to plant lettuce and spinach. :-( It was hot today. My outdoor thermometer said 108 degrees in the sun. My cool weather veggies (peas, brassica, and spinach) look rather the worse for wear. I planted another hill of canteloupe and watermelon. Yesterday I took pictures of my bee swarm, but today it had moved on.

I still have tomato seedlings to pot up and get outside.

I planted 6 more tomatoes, 6 more marigolds, a couple nasturtiums, turnips and bok choy. I know it's late for the turnips and bok choy. The rest were all seedlings.

We had some thunder storms blow through. It knocked out the power at lunch time. It came back on after about an hour (just long enough to use up the battery power on my computer.) A second round of storms came through at dinner time. I would have gotten more done if it wasn't for the storms. Tomorrow I'm back to work :-(

Interesting development on a 'veggie' site. Gives you a feeling of how the rest of the world is doing. I can't imagine the experience of a tornado although a hurricane is no stranger. It's hot right now, really hot for this time of year but that's not a valid complaint when considering the awful devastation happening elsewhere. My heart goes out to you out there, I wish prayers really worked, I'd be on my knees. Hang in there. JB

Blanched and froze about 4 pints of peas that were picked and shelled yesterday. Shopped with the kids for a new pool filter cartridge and goggles, came home and got the filter going, kids jumped in the pool and their lips turned blue...(pool was just barely filled and it was rainy and cool yesterday) I stayed out of it, cleared some clover from part of the fence around the garden. Worried over the blossoms that just dropped from my white russet potato plant without opening, there were ladybugs on that plant yesterday, running up and down, but not seeming to be eating anything. Rubbed steel wool over an old rusted gate that I want to paint and set up as a trellis in a new yet to be dug flower bed. Took daughter to voice lesson, made salad for dinner from yummy garden greens...rather a nice easy start of summer day ~~~ thanks for this thread ~~~

Well I mowed all day at the day job as well as alot of weeding (103 degrees today) got home picked some lettuce, onions, swiss chard and broccoli as well as some baby green beans (couldnt wait for full size ones) made a nice salad with them for dinner. I ate dinner then went outside for about an hour of weeding and mulching then came here to my night job. I hope this heatwave breaks soon Tomatos are starting to go crazy and I dont even have the cages cut.

Happy Gardening
Mark

Well we finally had some good rain today, but between the thunderstorms (and after a long work day) I managed to sneak out into the yard to pick lettuce, chard, sugar snap peas, and asparagus. I also pitted and froze up 2 more quarts of sour cherries.

I noticed that something has killed my one Mortgage Lifter tomato plant and one of the Beefmaster tomato....still have 7 more Beefmasters and the cherry tomatoes but I'm peeved at whatever girdled the Mortgage lifter and Beefmaster and killed them.

well I went out to garden to find one of my cucs seedlings wilted :( Did 1 hour of digging, 30 mins weeding, and cleared the side yard ready for compost bin

Did some research on seedlings, germination, watering etc

Hehe, I worked like a demon all day and then some at work, but when I got home I pulled some frozen blackberries from last fall from the freezer to make jelly and went out to tour my garden. If you want pics, head over to my blog where I just posted my tour. Looking good!

Actually the real reason I went out there was to cut a gallon of greens. Three types of lettuce to be precise, to give to my mom since it's coming out our ears and she asked.

Here is a link that might be useful: Post from June 10, 2008...

Granite, I'm so glad you began this thread. It makes me feel good to see that I'm not the only person who sometimes experiences disappointment in the garden and who works like crazy too. I hope we can keep this going because it's a good way to reach out and take each other's hands.

This morning we have wind warnings AGAIN! Ahhhh, Kansas! Tree trimmer was supposed to come today, but it doesn't look like he will now. He is to remove a couple of oak branches growing over the apple tree that the squirrels are using for a run. Apples are about the size of large walnuts. Dang squirrels!

Picked more sugar snaps; will blanche and freeze those today, saw that the burpless cukes are about 3 inches long, picked two zukes -- I like them small, munched strawberries and sugar snaps for breakfast, planted three okra where the arugula was, put up a bamboo tepee for one hill of beans, and did a celebration dance because my fava beans are finally breaking the dirt!!! High Five me! Have never planted those before and ordered these from Italy. Don't know what to expect, but here goes.

That's about it for now. Have you thought about how lucky we are to have home-grown tomatoes? Happy gardening to you all. Wayne_5, can you tell me about wheat strips?

Great thread,this morning I picked some squash and then some more squash.I planted Asian melons and Galia melon.I have several melons planted and several more to plant.I looked for the hornworm(thats a daily chore for me)theres evidence its been on my eggplants.I will be back out there late this afternoon working in the vegetable garden and flower beds with whatever needs doing..Debbie

Watered the vegetable garden first thing this morning as usual. Tried to ignore the perennial beds because I declare I can here them begging me for water and that is a sad thing. Our severe drought appears to have decided to hang around again this year.

Picked snap beans and made three bean salad. Cut the sweet basil which is growing so fast now it's hard to stay ahead of it. Made a large batch of pesto and got it into the freezer. Picked bell peppers, cucumbers. Then stood and stared at the tomato plants waiting for the first tomatoes to ripen. Now I don't think staring will help move them along, but for the life of me I can't understand why they are taking so long to ripen this year.

With all the rain we have been getting, the grass is growing faster than my garden plants, so am digging out the grasses and weeds. (the geese and chickens love it!)
I need to get that done so I can transplant my cucumbers and plant my okra, pumpkins, melons, fall potatoes, corn, and pole beans.
Have been having to trim and prune back all the overgrowth that has grown due to all the rain and remove all the drowned plants.
It's a freaking jungle on the north side of the house! Gads!
The work is slow going because it is so wet...downright soggy, as it were, and I live in the prairie highlands on a ridge. I can't imagine what it must be like for those living in the lowlands and in the floodplain areas. Poor them!
I am enjoying the cold front that moved in, though. Much cooler. Aaaah!
Thanks, Great Spirit!
~ sweetannie4u

I had to go check on all my plants because there was slush on the deck. It snowed. Last year this time it was close to 100 degrees. The plants and seedlings were fine but tonight it is supposed to freeze so I'll have to cover everything up. Its supposed to be back in the 80s by Saturday.

Went to work again.... tried to eat outside this evening but driven in by rain. Oh well, maybe it will fill out the broad beans(favas) and get the French beans moving.

Wow...such a huge variety of growing experiences. I'm so happy for everyone who is sharing their days with me. It's wild to hear people talking about snow and another one talking about picking squash!

We had wind and thunderstorms much of today, so it may have finished my cherry harvest for me whether I was ready to give in or not. After work I did a little tour and tucked the tomato plants back into their cages and encouraged some pole beans to grow up the fence instead of forward onto the lettuce. My second planting of crowder peas looks like a flop due to the hot winds and high temps we had last week, now I need to decide if I want to replant tomorrow or Friday before my beach week or if I want to leave it be. The thunder drove me back in before I made up my mind, and then I was met in the basement by another kind of thunder as my husband's band is rehearsing in the basement tonight. It meant that I went from gardener to back-up singer, so its all fun.

Every day during the season that there is something to harvest in the garden I tell the kids when I get home from work and they come running. We get a bowl and go see what is for dinner. Today we picked a couple heads of romaine, a pac choi, a couple green onions, a couple zucchini, some basil, a couple cherry tomatoes, and some parsley. The little one (18 months) also picked some strawberries. I made a caesar salad, and a crustless quiche with some onion, sauted pac choi, sauted zucchini, basil, parsley, ham and swiss cheese. The tomatoes and strawberries only lasted long enough to get washed off. This is definitely my favorite time of the year.

Wow do I need to weed that garden! Oh, we also pulled the rest of the broccolini since it bolted.
Rick

Had a nice-weather day and spent most of it outdoors, finally! In addition to planting a BUNCH of flowers (including all my patio pots), I also planted the other tomato (this one's a Big Boy), rosemary, cucumber (Burpless), and yellow bell pepper that I picked up yesterday. I replaced the pitiful-looking Beefsteak seedling with the new Big Boy. I'm hoping that my 3 Superbush seedlings will make it, although I do have 3 more seedlings still in the greenhouse so could replace them if needed. Otherwise, I'll eventually pot the greenhouse stock on the deck. Also got half the lawn mowed, then the silly electric mower wouldn't start for me! Looks like it will need fixing but is still under warranty, at least.

After all that planting today, that danged weatherman decided it would be freezing tonight after all (grrr!!), so I scurried around and got frost blanket put down on all the veggies that will need the protection. Tomorrow morning I'll remove the covers and give everything a nice kelp spray. Oh, and it looks like I may have a few onions and some strawberries ready to harvest in another couple of weeks or so! Yeehaw! My very first edibles that I grew all by myself! :-D

Spent much of the day at a school garden. Hoed veggies planted by 4th graders. I wonder if I told them to companion plant watermelons and potatoes. Somehow a large bed got planted with both :) Most everything is growing great with our warmer weather. Rented out 3 community garden spots at the site, too. Why do they get rented now when we advertised them earlier during prime planting time and had few takers? Transplanted various veggies and flowers that were in weird or crowded places. We'll see if they survive such treatment with high temps....but they would have just been pulled out and thrown out otherwise. I hate to toss good plants but hate stunted overcrowded ones even more.

Harvested enough radishes and lettuce to be able to drop some off at a food pantry on the way home.

Hope to spend time in my own garden tomorrow. Still a few transplants to get in there once I reclaim the last corner from the weeds. Gotta cut the asparagus, too. I forgot to check that today....oops.

So nice to hear how all of you are doing. Again, granite, what a great idea.

Spent quite a bit of time in garden yesterday. A friend dropped by a load of grass clippings onto the compost pile so I churned it in and added straw. Picked more snap peas, tucked tomato branches into cages (they're growing great guns), harvested basil and made and froze some pesto. Of course, had to have some on rigatoni for lunch. Yum! Am keeping the blender up front on the kitchen counter these days.

I saw that all the asparagus I planted earlier this spring is up and lovely ferns are progressing. Jersey Giants. I put them all in a narrow cedar box measuring 24 inches wide and 15 feet long.

Tired today after spending much of the night watching weather news. Lots of tornado outbreaks in Kansas last night. God Bless those who lost loved ones and property...and gardens.

aulani,

I planted winter wheat last fall about the 1st of October in strips about 1 to 4 feet wide depending on the location. These strips help best when on the west side here. They do a great job of breaking the wind and perhaps help to deflect some wind driven herbicide if any from the adjacent fields out here in the country. The other day we had a 70 mph straight line wind before a storm and again we had a very hard one at the beginning of a storm. Usually the watermelon vines about 3 feet long [before they get interlocked with each other] get blown around kind of badly. but they were barely bothered it seems. Also in sandy areas [not here] the strips protect against sand blasting.

Today was my last day at work for awhile-I work at a large garden center during the school year, & go on 'hiatus' during the summers, when my kids are out.

It's been a strange spring, first too cool, then very hot, w/ torrential rains-we definietly have a good crop of mosquitoes! My own garden gets neglected when I'm at work, but I have 6 EBs planted w/ tomatoes, eggplant, & peppers. Still need to get the squash & okra in, although I've planted cukes, more eggplant, tomatoes, peppers in the ground. About the only thing I'm harvesting is tiny alpine strawberries, but starting tomorrow, I'll have more time to tend to my own garden...

Today's gardening project, besides my usual morning watering (this time with some nice seaweed fert mixed in) was to have a nice chat with a Master Gardener from our local extension service about my sickly looking Sweet 100 cherry tomato, along with a few other general questions I had for her. While everything else turned out to be fine in her estimation, it seems my Sweet 100 may very well have tomato spotted wilt virus, courtesy of thrips. Sigh!

She said I could try just removing the affected leaves and give it a few days, but ultimately I may have to pull the plant and 86 it. Darn it, I was really looking forward to those sweet little cherry maters! I'm thinking I might need to either put out sticky traps or even resort to a light spraying of insecticidal soap periodically in that bed, and maybe see if I can find another Sweet 100 at a local nursery to replace this plant. Otherwise, I'm only left with 3 Super Bush and 1 Big Boy (assuming they all survive and grow without succumbing to something as well).

I knew we had aphids but have only seen them attack my lupine so far (even this year... they've stayed away from the kitchen beds... at least so far, that is), but the MG said we have a pretty serious problem with thrips around here as well. Good to know... at least I can take steps now, even if it is part-way into the growing season and some damage is already done.

So tomorrow's projects: Picking up some shelving units for my greenhouse (hubby handed me a Lowe's ad this evening from the newspaper for units that are both perfect and are on sale!), and dealing with my thrip and virus problem! :-\

Wayne_5,
Thank you for the comeback. Yes, I can see why the wheat strips would work, especially against weed killer sprays from others nearby. Great idea.

It was very humid yesterday and in the late afternoon, I spotted an anvil cloud forming to the south. Later in the evening, tornado sirens went off twice when a funnel was sighted about six miles from my house. Never did go to the basement, but did watch from my kitchen window and listened to radio reports from storm teams. From the window I could see birds still feeding in the yard and garden, and squirrels looking for maple seeds in grass so I wasn't worried. Wildlife are good reporters. I was thankful it was still daylight so I could see the skies. Kept thinking of those poor Boy Scouts in Iowa. Bless them.

Rain came down in buckets later on. Got two inches so looks like I won't be getting in garden today. Will go out and look around. Looks good from the window. Those boxes drain well, and with straw in between, I can still walk out there. Burpless cukes are on a trellis and one is about ready so will check on it.

Have time now to make and freeze more pesto. Basil going crazy. Have a great day, everyone.

made sure things got watered, tied cukes to the trellis, checked flowers, cut some obstructing zuchhini leaves, pulled out heat-stroked peas, started more cukes for their place.

When I went out to do my watering and routine check-up on my gardens this morning, I had the cutest little damsel bug sitting above the door of my greenhouse. He danced around my finger and wouldn't fly away, so we chatted a bit instead. He assured me he and his friends would do their best to help me with my thrips problem. :-)

I also put down some aluminum foil strips at the bases of all the tomatoes and cucumber plants. My latest reading indicated that thrips are "confused" by aluminum and/or white, reflective mulches and find it difficult to "find" their favorite crops. And although I didn't get to the stores today, when I go out this weekend for the shelving units for my greenhouse, I'm also going to pick up some sticky traps (or the things I'll need to make some). I want to try other avenues before I resort to any spraying/application of any scary stuff. Certainly don't want to hurt my friendly ladybugs and damsel bugs while we're all battling the thrips!

Oh, and the ailing Sweet 100 cherry tomato didn't really look any worse today. Maybe there's still hope....

And, in other news... I can see a few strawberries that may just be red within another week or so! Woohoo! And, I dug carefully around a couple of Walla Walla sweet onions yesterday, and they actually are looking great! I still can't believe I don't appear to have any onion maggot fly problems, knock on wood! So, in my garden, it's a race to see what will be ready for harvest first; some strawberries or an onion or two. Anyone want to start a pool? :-)

WEEDED! And worked around the house of course...

{{gwi:61723}}

NICE, macheske! I love seeing others' garden photos!

Thanks Jodi. This is year 2 in this garden. I went from 20 x 80 to 40 x 80 this year. Most things are growing very well. The strawberries are pretty much done for the year. The broccolini is done and is now being used as mulch. The romaine was awesome (planted Jericho) and we still have about 30 heads in the garden. We must have eaten 60. The tomatoes are starting to be ready. We've had a few sungold and they were delicous. The bush beans are are flowering and the pole beans are about 4' tall. The cantelopes are about 6' long and the watermellons are about 4'. I don't know what to do with the pumpkins since they are already 15' long. The drip system is working great!
Thanks,
Rick

Weeding this morning. I'm finishing up the prep on my winter squash bed. Debating a trip to the market to see what plants they have left and what bargains I might find.

Very nice garden, Macheske. I can see you've been working hard. I don't know how to post a picture, but I did take a couple of my garden this morning. If it's not too complex, how does one post a picture?

I did it! I did it! I think I did anyway. Here, I took a picture of my garden today. Yippeee!

{{gwi:61724}}

If this doesn't work, I'll go hang my head in the tool shed.

Looks great aulani. No need to hide in the tool shed. Very nice and organized!

Looks like a nice climbing cuke you have there, Aulani.

Here are tall peas climbing on brush:

{{gwi:61725}}

Thank you macheske. The picture of your garden was motivation. Thank you too, pnbrown; your peas look very healthy. What a great idea to use brush -- that's recycling to the nth degree. My peas are about done so will be tearing them out in a couple of days and replacing with something else.

Yes, the cucumber is coming along nicely. Fish emulsion. It's a burpless variety and several are developing now. I check for beetles every single day. Can you tell I'll have to trim back the apple tree a little after this season? Also, that is volunteer dill in the strawberries. They seem to get along fine. Don't mean to go on and on, but this is my first year of retirement and I never had this much time before. If I were still teaching, I'd be grading papers right about now.

Next year I'm going to add a container garden just to experiment. Need to look up how to do it.

I learned recently that it's a good idea to cut the legume crops off near the ground and leave the roots in - the fixed nitrogen is mostly in the roots. I'm going to try that this year and transplant amongst the old stalks for a different crop. Celery in this case.

Hi everyone ! Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there ! I finally got a chance to plant the Opalkas I ordered thru the mail a few weeks ago, they are looking really healthy , hope they stay that way ;-) ... I took advantage of the cool morning and did some weeding around my tomatoes and while I was at it I took " inventory " The storms we had last night watered everything nicely... LOL I have more tomatoes than I thought, 40 so far ... I won't list all of them but here's a little summary - I have a Marglobe that will be ready to pick soon ,my Lemon Boy has 3 nice sized green ones so far, I finally have my first Cherokee Purple tom ;-) its tiny but its there ! One of my July 4 hybrid plants has 4 small toms , the one and only Rutgers I planted has 3 small ones, one of my Mortgage Lifters has a good sized green tom ... none of my Romas or Brandywines has toms yet ...

My yellow squash and zucchini needs picking again, this will be the 3rd batch in the past 2 weeks that I saute for dinner ! I also need to go back out and pick more snap peas, after thinking they weren't going to do anything I've gotten 2 nice batches of them for our salads the past week , I fear they will be done soon .

The cukes are finally growing, I have 3 almost ready to pick, it was nice to see the bees this morning buzzing about doing their job!

The patio tomatoes I have up by the house are growing well, there are 2 ready to pick today, the Sweet 100 and Sugary are doing great , they are loaded with lots of tiny green ones !

Hope everyone has a great day ! cooler temps are expected here later in the week, that will be nice, I'll hopefully be able to get out there and do more weeding aka the never ending chore ;-)

Pnbrown, Thanks for the reminder about leaving legume roots in. I had read that some time ago and forgot. Will take advantage of that before long.

I harvested today for the first time this season -- several garlic scapes and several snow pea pods, enough to go into a stir fry for tonight.

I also noticed that my cherries are beginning to blush, and I have my first tomato blossom, on the Roma that I bought from Lowes. All the other tomato plants I raised from seed, and some have flower buds but no flowers yet.

I might have to pull the spinach. It's looking quite peaked. It doesn't like this heat at all.

I also dug up some Blossom garlic that had flopped over and was turning brown. Disappointing harvest. All the bulbs were small, and some were single cloves.

Yesterday I hilled the last of the potatoes that needed it. Friday I transplanted a couple tomato plants into their final homes. They're staying on the back porch for a week to harden off, though.

I also put my leather gloves on and weeded sticklers until I got bored and tired of it. Still plenty more to take care of.

Ok...garden is growing great but I'm worried. Last year the tomatoes that we grew were dry inside...ok, they tasted dry compared to what I would expect. I figured it was because of all the grass we had growing around it. This year the garden is well weeded and we seem to have the same problem. The plants look great but the fruit is not juicy. I would expect the cherries to be sweet and juicy at least. The latest ones we've had were rather dry. Is this some sort of mineral deficiency? I really want to save this season, especially with these plants....

{{gwi:61726}}

Happy Father's Day! To celebrate, my hubby took me to Lowe's and bought me 2 new shelving units for my greenhouse and a deck box to store my gardening supplies in! :-D Wasn't that a nice Father's Day present he gave me? LOL Hey, I cooked him breakfast, so I deserved the goodies!

Actually we did a fair bit of shopping today, so not much was accomplished in the gardens. But tomorrow I'll get my new goodies set up and all my stuff can then be nicely organized. My hose caddy broke a few days ago, and while it's getting pretty tiring doing all my watering with the 2-gal. can, we still didn't find a decent caddy today so hubby said he'd hit some other stores after work tomorrow and find me a good one. Guess I can "hand" water for one more day.

My sickly Sweet 100 cherry mater continues to look like it's slowly but surely improving. One of the flowers is just fading as of today... I'll be interested to see if the plant sets fruit or not after its trauma/illness. If not, it appears there's a second plant/sucker coming in, and I might just cut off the main plant and see what the little one might do. Time will tell....

Oh! And I have a strawberry whose seeds turned red today! Yeehaw! That little berry may very well be my first official "harvest" from my first official kitchen garden. Stay tuned, Folks!

macheske, Here's a link to a discussion on your problem from The Garden Web. Your plants look real good. What are you fertilizing with? You're right, it might be a nutrient of some sort.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg051149079639.html

Thanks Aulani. I checked out that thread earlier. I put a lot of composted manure in the garden and tilled it in last fall. I also fed the plants with 10-10-10 twice (once about a week after they went in, and again when fruit started to set).

I'm thinking a trace mineral that isn't well absorbed because the PH is a little high?

I'm still putting in the garden, but getting very close to being done. Yesterday, I put in 7 more tomato plants, 3 zucchini plants, some oregano, marjoram, 6 hot pepper plants (it's sounding like a recipe isn't it,) nasturtiums and marigolds. I still have 2 melon (orange glo) seedings and winter squash (sweet dumpling) seedlings to get in the ground. I'm hoping for a warm fall.

Happy Gardening!

I transplanted basil out into the garden boxes today, some here, some there. Trimmed some of the big basil in containers, brought it indoors and made pesto for freezing. I make and freeze a lot of it because I just love it on Penne pasta, or drizzled on freshly sliced tomatoes. Oh my!

I mixed up some Miracle Gro and fed a few things, staked some eggplant, and checked for bugs here and there.

Macheske, I've never used Epsom Salts on tomatoes. I always mean to, but forget. Could that be something you need?

Booberry, may you have a warm and long fall. :)

Good Monday! My bench box is together and sitting in its new home next to the greenhouse on a nice, even layer of bark mulch. The Envirocycle compost bin has been moved to the other side of the greenhouse and is now on a nice, level layer of gravel. I also put together an area next to it for layering additional compost materials. And, I got one of the 2 shelving units we bought yesterday put together and placed in the greenhouse (the other unit will come in handy upstairs in my sewing room). Now, all the row covers, frost blankets, bird netting, etc. are in the bench box, the greenhouse is neat and organized, and the composter is tucked out of view.

Oh, I also did my morning watering, and I sowed a few more carrot seeds (as only a dozen or so of my original sowing had sprouted).

Over 80 out there today, so the rest of the day was spent indoors so far. Might get back out this evening, though, for more garden tinkering. :-)

Beautiful day today, sunny and not hot at all. I tied a few stray tomato branches, staked one eggplant, turned on the drip watering system, and planted some Swiss chard in a space I found.

Oh yeah, I made a discovery. I bought some Dr. Scholl's foot scrub with pumice and found that it makes a perfect hand scrubber for hands, cuticles, and under nails and leaves hands nice and soft. I don't like to use gloves so I was happy to discover this. Hope it works for you too.