Prepping the Garden

I thought that I would share a photo of my pretty pink peonies. They are one of my favorite flowers :)



Tomorrow is the first day that we should be clear of any frost danger and I thought it was high time that we get our garden in order! We all set out right after breakfast to beat the heat and K and I tackled shoveling the rows of dirt while the youngest two shot dirt in every direction from atop the hill of soil my dad dropped in last week :) At least it's helping to disperse it! *grin*.

The grass and weeds all along the inside of the garden fence have grown quite high and I don't know how many wheel barrows of sod and weeds we dumped into the pit before the rain started pouring down again just before lunch. We didn't get finished but I'm hopeful that we'll be able to venture out again tomorrow if it's not to wet and muddy.

I thought that I would try something new this year with my tomatoes so I picked up some of the above planting hangers that let you grow your tomatoes on their sides or upside down instead of the conventional way of upright in the soil. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

I planted 3 different varieties.

Rocket ~ an early variety, suffers from little disease, produces medium sized tomatoes and is fast maturing which is perfect for coastal regions like where we are.
Super Sweet 100 ~ sugary sweet cherry tomato, resistant to wilt, and produces long clusters of fruit right up to the frost.
Window Box Roma ~ compact plant perfect for containers, disease resistant, excellent for cooking in sauces or homemade tomato paste.

I think I'm most excited about the Roma tomatoes as I plan to can tomato sauce and ketchup this year. Oh boy, these tomatoes better do well as I have 101 plans for them! LOL.

After ducking in and out of the greenhouse for a couple of hours to avoid getting soaked in the rain we finally had a break in the weather long enough to help my mom with some of her garden chores :) She has a gorgeous hillside garden and all of her pathways are covered with bark mulch to keep the weeds away. Some spots were in need of some fresh mulch so L & M helped carry it up the mountain in ice cream pails. The perfect size for little hands :) M was so excited that he got to use the pitch fork all by himself to fill his bucket. You should have seen him beaming from ear to ear as he got to do a 'big boy' job *grin*.

And off he goes with his pail :)
I think everyone was utterly exhausted tonight as there was not one protest at bedtime and nothing but silence within minutes of their heads hitting their pillows. They're going to need the rest as we're going to do it all over again tomorrow weather permitting!

~ Rosina