~* Adventures in Gardening 2010, Part 2 *~

The garden is planted!!!

~* garden 2010 *~

We worked our tails off this entire weekend (and I am home from work today recovering the injury sustained during all this yard work...more on that at the end of the post). We got a lot done this weekend, but once again, we overestimated the amount of stuff we could reasonably do in one weekend. The veggie garden is planted but there is still much work to do in our yard.

~* tomato row *~

We worked on Saturday from about 8AM when we arrived at the garden center, till about 4:30 that afternoon. And we only had one fight that whole time!

~* zucchini and cukes *~

As always, my plan and vision for what we would plant continued to evolve even while I wandered the rows at the garden center. We ended up planting some things we didn't think we would. I would have planted even more if we had the space. One thing we didn't get to this year was expanding the size of our garden. This would have involved digging up a separate bed in our side yard and it was a bit too ambitious when paired with everything else we need to do this year.

~* romaine, onions, string beans *~

This is what we ended up planting this year:

* Tomatoes: cherry, Roma, and celebrity

*Peppers: red bell, jalapeno, cayenne, cubanelle

* Zucchini

* Cucumbers

* String beans

* White onions

* Romaine lettuce

* Carrots

* Strawberries

Herbs:

* lots of basil

* Greek oregano

* Italian parsley

* chives

* sage

~* romaine, carrots (still in the dirt!), marigolds *~

We planted a few marigolds in the garden because they are good at controlling pests and they attract bees which are needed for pollination.

See that little chicken wire contraption in the middle of the garden. That is our homemade string bean trellis! We had the stakes, we had the chicken wire. We figured why buy something when we can make it?! So when the string beans start to sprout through the dirt we will start to train them up the trellis. Remember in past garden posts I mentioned we just kind of go with the flow and try whatever!

I still need to photograph the strawberries and herbs. And I put some extra tomato and pepper plants in pots. I will photograph everything next weekend, or maybe some day this week.

We also potted a lot of flowers this weekend, too. I put together two hanging baskets of impatiens and two planters of impatiens for our deck. I did a hanger of bacopa for the side of our house. I made up a planter of dracena, New Guinea impatiens, and vinca and a smaller planter of New Guinea impatiens for our front porch. And we planted a marigold border around our hostas in front of our house. We still have a hydrangea we are going to plant on the hill next to our shed. We also need to purchase and plant shrubs and perennials in front of our house.

Those are the things we need to do. Of course my mind is always spinning with more things I want to do. I would love to plant a lot more flowers. I am always trying to figure out how to plant more veggies. But there are only so many hours in a day...

So, about that injury. We were planting the marigold border in front of the house. The bed where the hostas are is also where I put my little garden flag. I have a ring of rocks around the stand to keep the flag holder from spinning around in the dirt. Kevin was sprawled out putting in flowers and I got up to get more soil. I stepped over his legs, caught my foot on them, and went flying. My thigh smashed in to the rocks then I landed on my butt in the dirt! Quite a sight I am sure. Funny thing is I felt fine when I got up and we got back to what we were doing. It wasn't until a few hours later in the house when I went to sit down did I feel the searing pain in the thigh. I bruised my thigh from the inside all across the top. My muscle is all tight and strained. I literally had tears in my eyes trying to find a way to sit or lay down that didn't cause intense pain. I didn't sleep a wink. I attempted to get ready for work but it just wasn't going to happen. There was no way I would be able to sit at my desk all day. So I have taken quite a bit of Motrin today, and have iced and elevated my leg, and thankfully I can now sit and walk fairly comfortably. I will be good to go tomorrow.