I'm Just Visiting This Planet

Last year we put the pea fence up after the peas really needed them. So this year we decided to put the poles up first -what a concept! Here they are, with Anne planting peas.

So we think we have nothing to worry about, and we set up the Earth Boxes with mulch covers. These boxes are great-wheeled, with a staking set that comes with its own netting. We decide that there is no problem in leaving the boxes out. Here are some photos of us putting the boxes together. Here's Anne calling the Earth Box folks for some advice. Turns out we didn't need it-we got them up and working in no time, and Anne planted the tomato plants we bought at the Teatown Plant Sale. And here's what happened. Something ate through the cover-and left the tomato plants alone! Netting and duct tape to the rescue! So far, so good. Since the boxes are on wheels, we can wheel them around the property to follow the sun. Let's hope this works and we don't wind up with a $64 tomato!

So here's Anne trying to figure out how to plant the strawberries. Boy am I glad because they were living in the veggie drawer of our refrigerator before they got planted. Here's an "after" shot- . Most of them look good. We'll just have to wait and see. [Update: June 8-well, they don't look so good now. Either they are not getting enough sun or something is eating them, or both. We moved them in to the fenced in garden yesterday, but we don't have much hope for them.]

Okay, these are from last week, but at least I have some photos! Here are the strawberries that Anne ordered from Gardener's Supply (maybe?). As soon as they look more like strawberries we'll have to cover them. And here's what the fenced in garden looks like-look at those tulips! That's the only way we can have tulips. The three raised beds are waiting for our attention! Those bags of compost are just waiting to be opened and tossed into the beds. The lilacs and the azaleas are gorgeous! These photos don't do them justice.

Ah, the best laid plans! We were supposed to go to Teatown for their plant sale today, but the weather isn't very promising. [Note: we actually did go, in the rain, and got lots of wonderful plants-zucchini, a patio tomato, some cat mint.] Anne got some strawberry plants in last weekend. Our strawberry planter broke (who even remembers how or when) and we decided to plant them in long narrow boxes. We now have enough strawberry plants to go into the strawberry business. But since strawberries are usually produced with pesticides, we don't eat anything but organic strawberries. It will be nice to grow our own. We've ordered Earth Boxes for tomatoes. The plan was to buy tomato plants at Teatown and get them into the Earth boxes-we'll see. We want to try Earth boxes because we can move them around, as the sun moves; we'll have to cover them to keep critters away from them. We have a topsy turvy planter that we're going to try to grow zucchini in-we like z

Spring is finally here (I hope!) and we've been out doing garden work (finally!). Although it was raining on Saturday morning, we hurried over to Westchester Community College's Native Plant Center for the annual plant sale. Got wonderful things. On Saturday I trimmed the bushes behind the fenced in garden, set up the bird feeders and hung the hummingbird feeder. Anne planted the area behind the garage and we put up the garden ornament that Vicki and Kristine gave us (pictures to follow!). I've been enjoying reading the blogs of my friends Sarah and Steve (links on this blog). They have been inspiring and have helped me keep my focus. Finally, here are some pictures from the Open Gardens on Saturday. My battery ran out when we got to the Steinhardt garden but I have really nice pictures of Rocky Hills-look at all the forget-me-nots in the picture above. We now need tons of them for our garden! And how about this tree house-makes me want one! This is from a garden in