Now I Really Am Done

Starting on Wednesday I finally got around to planting up the rest of the garden.  There's still something going on with the nerves near the incisions, but the doctor says it's normal up to 6 weeks after surgery and I'm just over 4 weeks post op, so she's not worried.  It's not keeping me from doing anything and my energy is back where it should be (though my stamina's not 100% yet), so I'm no longer limiting my activities.  What's the first thing I did?  Have a friend over to see the garden.  She couldn't come until teatime, so I made some sun tea and hit my new favorite place Sugar for cupcakes and cookies:

 

We had a lovely time together on a perfect day.  After she headed home with a rosemary and a lemon grass (I had a million herbs afterall), I wandered around taking a few photos here and there.  Habanero peppers have set on a few plants:

 

And bell peppers on a few:

 

I think the Roma tomatoes will be the first to ripen:

 

Though there are plenty of contenders in the wall o' tomatoes:

 

And how awesome does the planter table of Royal Purple Bush beans look?  There are tons of little baby beans growing, but I'm also digging how decorative they are:

 

The rest of these photos are from a few different days, but you don't really care and I know what happened when.  WARNING: These next three pics are a little gross.  Poor little bird embryo.  I have no idea where it came from though, since there are no trees over the veggie garden at all:

 

VPH was called in for the dirty job of disposing of it:

 

Oh well, cycle of life and all that:

 

But these photos are so much more fun!  Once again a dragonfly sat and posed for me.  I had about 30 good ones that I narrowed down to these three.  Please comment and tell me which is your favorite and why.  #1:

 

#2:

 

#3:

My mom sent me a pretty card right after my surgery:

I like the painting on the card so much that it might end up in a frame.  Doesn't my mom have the most distinctive hand-writing?  Not to be morbid, but some day she will be gone and I'm pretty sure just seeing it will make me cry: 

Since only one moon-flower seed actually grew, I had plenty of space for a climber in this container.  I planted cinnamon, opal, and purple ruffles basil (grown from seed with varying degrees of success) along the front and sowed a row of malabar seeds along the back:

 

I planted up two containers of herbs for my friends Jessica & John.  John said he'd take as much basil as I'd like to give him, so I put the sweet basil I grew from seed in the square container and golden oregano, purple sage, rosemary, and some big-leaf Italian basil from Vaiuso in the round container.  A pretty nice present for friends (who are loaning us their Tom-Tom for the drive to Buffalo) for way under $10:

I next turned my attention to the raised veggie bed.  I cut back the nasturtiums, especially the one vining up the trellis.  I decided the cucumbers didn't need the competition.  From left to right I planted lemon basil (from seed), big-leaf Italian basil ($1 from Vaiuso), and lime basil (from seed):

Here's the after.  Much better I think:

The herb barrel is probably over-planted, but I had a lot of herbs.  It took me a good 5 minutes to dig out the roots from last year's lemon grass, so I decided that this year the lemon grass could go in the ground behind the barrel, I just hope it gets enough sun, but if grass grows there, I figured lemon grass would.  Starting with the chives moving clockwise: I divided the chives and will give half to a friend, left the creeping thyme as it was (though next year I may plant a seedling of something in the middle of it early in the spring), a tiny golden sage overwintered but hasn't grown much, English lavender which I hope will overwinter for me, golden oregano, silver thyme, sage, and lemon basil.  In the middle there's red rubin basil, stevia, and parsley:

 

I still had herbs left (I know crazy, right?), so I planted up one more basket with purple sage, silver thyme, big-leaf Italian basil, and golden oregano:

 

The patio tomato was disgusting (I don't know what it had, but it went into the trash not compost), so these herbs will live on the bar on the patio.  I can't get over how huge the bar looks without the trays of seedlings on the bottom shelf:

A rare photo of VPH sitting.  He helped me put up the netting and had carried the chair over to stand on.  He didn't feel like gardening, so I asked him to sit and keep me company while I weeded.  I was on my way to get the weeding stool and snapped this photo without his knowledge:

 

And here's the same spot after weeding and now with Kentucky Wonder beans planted beneath the string trellis and behind the green metal trellises alternating Maxibel and Royal Burgundy bush beans (thanks Jennah!).  The green metal trellises are at staggered heights because I couldn't push the second one any further into the ground -- stupid rocks.  Luckily I think I like them better in that pattern than I would all at the same height:

 

I finally planted some white impatiens in the little blue pot and tucked it into the roots of the huge maple stump on the shady side of the house:

And this is kind of a funny one, but the bleeding hearts die back to the ground every summer when it gets hot (and it's been hot) and the container they're in is pretty prominent along the walkway.  I had a bunch of shade plants and an empty container, so I figured I might as well plop it on top of the "empty" glazed pot.  I used the coleus I grew from seed, white impatiens, lamium and creeping jenny.  I don't think it looks that weird:

 

So I'm left with only one shelf of plants.  6 containers of petunias which will be used to replace husky cherry tomatoes in the not too distant future, one lamium which could go anywhere, the Japanese maple seedling (growing really well!), a huge pot of chives for my friend, a lemon grass which could go into the ground next to the one behind the herb barrel if I don't find a better spot, a lemon thyme, one single lemon grass that I grew from seed that I can't bear to let go, silver thyme, an unidentified basil, lavender that I grew from seed, golden oregano, and hot & spicy oregano:

 

You can sort of see here that the cilantro and dill have already bolted, so they'll need to be replaced once they finish flowering.  I plan to replace the cilantro with the hot & spicy oregano and the dill with the silver thyme:

 

But really, I am done.  My goal was to get all the herbs in and the beans planted by the 4th of July and I beat that by a few days.  I've so enjoyed this spring/early summer and now I look forward to the first real tomato.  But first we're off to Buffalo on Thursday for Garden Bloggers Buffa10 and I can't wait to see some of my garden blogger friends face to face!  Now we just have to talk SS2 into watering the garden while we're gone.

Comments

[Mummer]

A stunning post - thank you!
Number #1 photo captures my attention - he (she, it?) looks like he's smiling....

[Monica at Garden Junkies]

You sure have been busy!! I agree, dragonfly #1 is really cool - looks like it's looking right at you and kind of smirking. Poor little bird. A couple of weeks ago I found one like that on top of the little bistro table in the garden. Very strange place for it to be and I have no idea how it got there.
Safe travels up to Buffalo. Looking forward to meeting you there!

[Heather's Garden]

Mom -- That seems to be the choice of everyone I've shown the photos to.

Monica -- I had to get it all done before the heat arrived, and boy am I glad I did. So looking forward to meeting you too and some lower temps!

[Jessica]

I like the picture 1 of the dragon fly. He actually looks like he is talking to you. Love the pics of the garden, All of my maters have died from the heat here. Red peppers are coming in, but half of them are burnt on one side. I will definately excel even more next year with my planting. i feel as though my veggies are a part of me since i put so much time into them, that when they die, I actually feel sad.. LOl sounds like a post secret card LOL

[Heather's Garden]

Jessica -- That's awful about your tomatoes. We're just starting to get ripe ones here, but haven't had the first tasting yet. There is nothing more depressing than nurturing veggies along and not getting a yield.