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Garden party. What–evaaaaah.

William and I have been watching Downton Abbey. In the last episode of the first season, imagine my surprise when Lord and Lady Grantham attempted a garden party. They had silver tea service and evidently sent a memo instructing everyone to wear natural linen. Hurrumph. They obviously have no idea.

Let’s not forget that we had Ricky Nelson’s “I Went to a Garden Party” playing on a phone in a plastic cup. Let’s do a side-by-side comparison: Piper Steet Garden Party vs . . . .

My favorite garden party movie scene would have to be from Chocolat.

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Weekend farmer

Some people are weekend warriors; I am a weekend farmer–at least this weekend. Saturday morning I planted 225 pepper seeds and then finished transplanting the broccoli/cabbage plants (They have been mixed up, so I will be surprised later when we find out what they actually are.) I wasn’t able to finish up everything because I ran out of potting soil. That’s okay, though, because I’ve also run out of windows for all my crops!

local newspaper–the gift that keeps on giving

Sunday morning I went to Piper St with the intention of spending an hour. I arrived at 9 A.M. and didn’t end up leaving until 1:15 P.M. What was accomplished? I double-dug the north bed and the far west bed; dug half of another bed and then transplanted five clumps of chives that were growing throughout the yard. I also dropped off the firepit I bought from Laura and trimmed around the entire tree area. About 11:3o Kim dropped by on her bicycle to help with onion transplanting. We planted two rows. There are easier ways of getting food. We still have more to plant, but that was enough for one day. Note to self: buy onion sets next year. Transplanting DINKY little onion seedlings that have been grown from seed is tedious work. Did I mention that it was tedious? It is tedious. Yep.

I did not take a pic of the garden today, but will try to get it tomorrow afternoon. I’m sure it will look simply spectacular after the four hours of gentle rain we had today. Just a note: temps are predicted to be unseasonably cool for this entire week–nightly lows in the mid-30’s!

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rebellion of the sodbusters

Well, it has happened . . . sooner than I expected, to be quite honest. Lisa, Kim and I worked for about 90 minutes. I think the word rototiller was mentioned 45 times within that span of time. With diligent work, we were able to clear the sod from another 4×20′ bed. If we are going to have a home for all the tomatoes that we have started, we need to dig several more beds. Let’s not forget that Cindy wants some sweet potatoes. So, we will check in to renting a sod cutter . . . or not 😉

beginning of the 90 minutes

life in the ‘hood

Lisa & Jennifer demonstrate good form: Lisa expends some excess energy with a ponytail flip

end of the 90 minutes–nothin’ left but the digging

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garden party

Well, the first garden party is in the books–and it was a cold one! With two hours of continuous work, we were pretty much able to finish up three beds, for a total of four. Then we took a nice little break and listened to some music while we finalized garden plans. So far we have a patio, chimenea, fence, organic fertilizer generators (aka chickens), and a hot tub as options.

 

 

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Sodbusting Party

Kim, Lisa and Dwight HARDLY working

Dwight

quittin’ time

view from the back of the property


Here’s what happens when you send out a group text mentioning that there will be a little garden work happening between 4:30-6:00pm. After I sent the text, I checked the weather: rainy and cold. As you can see, it was a very cold, gray day. The high temp today was 44 degrees. We were, however, very productive! We had so much fun that we have another party tentatively scheduled for Fri; however, thunderstorms are forecast for this evening and tomorrow–maybe even some sleet around daybreak. So that means that we might not be able to get back in the dirt for awhile.