Juddmansee.com

I really enjoy gardening. Getting my hands in the soil, being outside, and seeing plants grow is good for my soul. As usual, between the weather and my schedule, I didn’t have time to do much out in the yard/garden until June. The good part is that it’s safe to plant everything by now.

First I went to the garden center to pick out plants for the window boxes, and picked up a few extras in case Betty hadn’t had a chance to drop off any flowers for the planter at church. Then, I headed over to church for our clean-up day. At one point, Ken and I were mopping, Vicki and Barbara were wiping down the pews, Amanda, Jack and Ellie were cleaning the window sills (eye level for 2 1/2 and 5 yr olds) and base boards while Duncan mowed the yard and trimmed back the fence line. The sanctuary was sparkling and smelling very nice by 11:30. Betty had indeed brought some impatiens, so Vicki planted them while I did some trimming. We were all done right on schedule at noon.

Being already quite sweaty and dirty, and knowing it would rain later in the afternoon, I jumped right into planting the window boxes. I got coleus, dusty miller and salvia plus two big red geraniums for the pots beside the door. I was putting away my trowel when I noticed that the yard could use mowing. So, I got out the mower from the shed and got pollen dumped on my head from the tree. So I cut back the low hanging branches so the door could swing clearly, then mowed the yard. I thought that I really should plant the garden, so I hoed the three sections to turn up the soil, and planted our basil, tomato, green beans and mixed salad greens. Then I started weeding the patio area which had become very overgrown with clover and grass. I had noticed there were a lot of pine cones in the yard when I mowed, so I started raking them into the brush pile, then I thought perhaps I should start cutting up the brush and putting it into yard bags so we could take them to the town compost site. Finally, I saw that I had one package of seeds left, so I went ahead and planted cosmos and Grandma Hume’s sand dollar seeds in the raised flower bed by the kitchen, and I’ll just see how they do there. By 4:20, I decided that I was sufficiently tired and blistered, and I should call it a day.

Here are some pictures of the window boxes: