Ideas, Ideas, and Reality

My dear friend Sarah came by this afternoon, and boy oh boy are we just loaded with good ideas for my backyard.  With plenty of creative thought, and with very little money, we are convinced we can turn that place into a cozy living room of a yard.  The yard has very odd levels, which I believe lends itself to a fabulous artistic palette.  When I get around to it, I will post sketches of some of our ideas.  I hope to firm up a plan by mid-summer so that I can plant a cover crop of Buckwheat and Crimson Clover in the new "edible landscape" beds.  This will help turn my solid clay soil into something richer and more workable.  And if I have any energy left, buckwheat can be used for its grain. 

Because clearly, I need more projects...

Here's what's ACTUALLY happening in my garden:

Receiving 3 cubic yards of garden soil is great, except, what to do with the leftovers????

 Load up a wheelbarrow...

...and patch in a hole!

...or make a rock garden.

My lavender out front is finally taking off.  I believe it's in an adolescent stage now.  I'm certain all of the other flowers out front are snickering at its goofiness. 

 "Daisies are the happiest flower."

 After moving dirt, the remainder of Sunday was spent rearranging the container garden to fill in areas around the house beds.  Most of the bed to the right of the chimney is edible.

The "rustic" bamboo trellis.   That will be covered with morning glories and moonflowers before long.  Moonflowers are the most enchanting of them all.

The first squash blossom...

 

Sun Golds - bigger every day!  These plants need to be staked in the next few days.

But a garden, especially a first garden, is not all about success.  My pepper plant is showing serious weakness.  I realized that the beds were due for some fertilizer.  While I would love to be at the point where I am not having to use commercially made fertilizer, I am simply not there yet.  Still, I chose wisely based on the opinions of the fine people at Fifth Season Gardening and chose Happy Frog from FoxFarm.  I applied fertilizer after this picture, and of course, will keep you posted on growth!

The Better Boy is also declining rapidly.  I should note that the plants that are not doing well are all ones I bought as plants.  The seedlings are doing fine.  In fact, I have to quit calling them seedlings, because they are PLANTS now.  The Sun Golds I bought as plants, but they came from a farm using similar methods. 

How about ending on a good note?  This Brandywine is really coming along!  The day when I notice blossoms on the tomato plants that I started from seed will be a good day.