Garden Journal

"Methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Last night, Limerick and I built a long raised bed in our old/new garden (which means it used to be a vegetable garden, but has been fallow for several years.) We planted Emerald Artichokes over about the first 24 feet. These are sort of an experiment, because I've never heard of any one growing artichokes in our zone 4b/5 region. The seed company claims that they are hardy here and we love artichokes, so we're giving them a try.

The boys and I planted several hills of pumpkin down the next 24 feet. The garden is about 56 feet long, so that leaves a few feet for something else in the row. As soon as Limerick has another free evening, we will construct the next raised bed.

Today, I added some orange marigolds and lavender petunias to my front porch planter, which had sustained some frost damage in May. I also planted three rosemary plants and a little marigold in an herb bed. I purchased these three rosemary plants today, because those I planted from seed several weeks ago have not germinated, unless you count one tiny sprout which doesn't die, but doesn't grow either. I put a marigold in a little clay pot in an empty space in the butterfly garden, which will eventually be filled in with lupines that are very young and small this year.

I did some watering and some edge-trimming by hand and thoroughly enjoyed my hours in a warm breeze, under a pearl gray sky.