Jungle love

My garden has exploded. In a good way. It truly is a jungle. I planted in the spirit of "Square Foot Gardening" even though I hadn't bothered to read the book - I figured it meant just pack it in. And it's worked so far! One of the benefits of this gardening method is lack of weeds - there's simply no room for them. On the other hand, the swiss chard seeds I planted just before I put in the rest of the starts hasn't had a chance to grow either. Oh well, our Farmer's Market will fill in the veggie gaps we have.

Another casualty was the broccoli - each of my 6 plants had a small head when I noticed caterpillar worms on them. I struggled mightily with those buggers last year and I'm not fighting that battle this year - not with the rest of my garden flourishing and space being at such a premium. So the other night we had a delicious pasta primavera with zucchini, basil and the first/last broccoli from the garden.

Just for reference, this is the garden May 20, just after I planted it:

In addition to being being a fertile ground for plants, it seems I've created a haven for woodland animal babies. Two weeks ago I went out to check on it and startled a fawn sleeping in the grass in the U. I had to open up one side of my garden fence to let it out and then I was worried about how it was going to get through our outer fence to find it's mother. Since I haven't seen it since I assume it did eventually find her. 

Today when I was visiting my garden a bunny exploded from one side, so I went to look at the fence and, low and behold, there were 4 baby bunnies sticking their noses out of their nest next to the wooden raised beds (but inside the wire fence). Sigh. I'm not going to do anything cruel, but I am worried about how much of the veggies will make it to my family. Strangely enough, even with a totally ineffective fence, I don't see any signs of damage to any of the plants. We'll see how long that lasts with a hungry momma bunny and Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter to feed. (Or maybe it's Thumper and his family, since Bambi was already there.)

This is a picture of the nest in the grass. Note the downy grey fur layer. They were out of the hole when I first came upon them, and then must have ducked back in by the time I came back with Natalie and the camera. 

And now, some cute pictures of the kids:

Sam loves feeding the chickens. "Chickie" is one of his words now. He'll bring the metal dish to the nearest adult, then toddle to the door where we keep the food, point and yell to get in and get the food. The chickens seem to like him quite a bit too. Natalie's robot family.

From the ground up

I refer to myself as "an aspiring gardener" but those aspirational days are behind me: I'm bona fide. The raised beds are made, filled with dirt and planted. The fence needs some help yet, but that will come. Here's some photos of the project:

Natty was right in there, every step of the way (except for the actual construction of the bed frames). We had a lot of fun gardening together, although she does get hot frequently and, as befits a true drama queen, has to go inside to cool down. "whew!" She says.

While she's been helpful with the garden, her heart is elsewhere. She has a "Lab" in the barn where she keeps her potions, rocks and inventions. (Like her robot dog). She has a few inventions and way more ideas. For instance: a walking back scratcher. Even though she's explained that one to me multiple times, I'm still not sure I understand it. But jump back world! Natty's going to shake things up.

Speaking of the barn - I made a call to our absentee barn whisperer and he's back on the job - Woohoo! the treacherous trenches are being filled in and the huge supports are being taken down. It's looking like the building we fell in love with again. Ironically, there are also 2 guys reroofing the front porch (it was rotten) and a  carpenter building a railing for the barn loft. Somehow they all converged on this week to do the work. Amazing. Loud. Chaotic. and Wonderful that all this is getting done. 

Gardening: the front gardens

The previous owners of our house - and the owners before them - were great gardeners. The front beds are full of perennials; some of them quite old. We were told by many Pomfret neighbors how special those front gardens are which does put some pressure on me to keep them from dying. (this is not ideal for a person who finds houseplants stressful: the longer they live the longer I have to worry about them dying. The alternative is illustrated in the case of the gardenia plant that keeled over a week after I brought it home. Case closed. I have no idea what I did wrong but at least I only had to worry about it for a week). 

Black thumb aside, I have high hopes for these established gardens. Surely they are tougher than me. This year I had the beds mulched first thing in the spring and I'm just watching to see what grows. (I did plant some Ranunculus in one bare patch - I had to mess with it somehow).

So, I've been excited to see what would come up as spring progressed and so far it has been great fun - full of anticipation and happy surprises. 

Here are some pictures of what is blooming right now. I'll keep you posted as more pop up. 

                  

P.S. The poison ivy is essentially healed. It started improving the day after I wrote my "I'm miserable" blog. I guess the blog was very cathartic. Thanks for all the sympathy!