Garden Pre-Check

We are back from vacation and my daughters BFF did a great job feeding the stray cat and watering seedlings. I had already written off the seedlings and hoped for the best. Considering everything was left in an open cold frame for the sun and the slugs and the off & on downpour of May rain, I am quite pleased anything survived. 

I did sort of run to the feed store and made an $18 purchase on some plants before the cheap ones sold out for the season. A tray of 6 plants is $3. They are easy to find at the beginning of the season but as people start planting, all that becomes left are cherry tomatoes or the $5 pots. Nope! 

After a little jaunt to our overgrown pasture I was able to get into the garden. Not as good as it can be, but not nearly as overwhelming as last year. This week is going to be very wet. Wednesday I can get some work done but no tilling. My husband is hoping to get the pasture mowed, which will make everything look less abandoned. 

The boxes where the leaves/cardboard did not blow away are looking great. Last week I planted a couple tomato plants and they aren't dead yet even after being ignored while we were away. This is ideal and I think that if we make an effort to put the garden to bed earlier, there is a chance next year will be this simple. It is satisfying to see that the work paid off.

I'm going to call a time of death and assume the strawberries did not take. 

Boxes that only partially blew away are not terrible and I think having the parameter of the box is a good mind trick in not feeling like I have a huge overgrown field to weed. Plus the weeds pull out without much work. I will put a child in charge of cleaning up a few boxes. 

There are potatoes!!  There are also weeds!!  The potatoes are first on my list for Wednesday. Get some of the weeds picked and then hoe some dirt/straw over and hope that stage two goes well also. I have never grown potatoes before so I am relying on pinterest to teach me.

Also, got one of these guys cleaned up. Untangled the dead from the living and had a child hold the vine while I pulled the old from the latticework and then used a couple ties to get it back on. I am waiting a couple days before doing the other one… just in case I killed it.