Seeing green

It's amazing how quickly May can get out of hand. As in, if I'm not spending part of every single day in that garden of mine, then I'm falling behind. After last weekend (three whole days away), it was time for some serious catch up. It was mid-eighties and incredibly humid most of the week, but I soldiered on.
The trellis with netting is for peas; the trellises with strings are for tomatoes. I never have good luck with tomato cages. They look fine until those plants start to take off, then the fruits start to ripen, the weight gets to be too much, and the whole damn thing tips over. So, I'm using Eliot Coleman's technique this year, and we'll see how it goes. Last Thursday I got my tomatoes (34) and peppers (24) in the ground. I am crossing crossing crossing my fingers for no deer/drought/other catastrophes this year. I have never had the exquisite privilege of hauling in laundry baskets-full of tomatoes, and I am starting to feel a little bitter, honestly, about that. Like, come on, you're not a real gardener until you've hauled in an abundance of tomatoes. And I haven't, ever, though it surely isn't for lack of trying.

The broccoli are so happy. Some of them are even starting to get crowns.

I mulched a lot. I planted beans, cucumbers, and squash. I pulled a lot of weeds. Today, which is blessedly cool and rainy, I even broke out the edger and prettied up two of the garden's three edges, in my rain jacket. I've always loved gardening in my rain jacket. I've had the same one since high school, where I think I broke it in my first spring as a vegetable gardener, planting on a rainy Memorial Day weekend. So, you see, this jacket and I have a long history together. I almost always find muddied seed packets in its pockets, when I wash it, and sometimes I pop out the rain visor on the hood for extra dorkiness. Ain't pretty, but it serves.

The garlic is also quite happy. 

This week we got over two inches of rain, which we needed badly. This was the scene, a lot, as Delmer and I sat upstairs waiting for it to break. I worked in a lot of rain, too. In my jacket. Yesterday Del curled up on a tarp in the garage while I weeded, and kept the baby chickens company, and sniffed for rats around the compost. In addition to being a gentle and affectionate family dog, he has perfectly tuned instincts for a life as a homestead guardian, too. And we are lucky.
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