2014 Garden, For Joy!!

VintageGardenArt, hand pressed vintage silver plate flatware, on Etsy

4 varieties of basil..

Roma tomatoes and flat leaf parsley..

 

 

I don't get manicures. Just like the gal in the Vistaprint commercials, who owns a greenhouse, no point. I like to play in the dirt too much. Even though I own garden gloves, I often do not wear them, as I love the feel of the earth. I did a show @ a garden center this past November, and made a trade w/ Julie, from VintageGardenArt; one of her vintage hand pressed silver plate flatware spoons for one of my cards. I picked 'Dirty Girl', w/ a giggle, knowing it was headed straight for one of my house plants, later to be moved to the garden. It has found its rightful place next to one of the purple basil plants. Good contrast, I thought!

I kept it simple. 4 varieties of basil. Sweet, Thai, Purple and Greek. The small leaf basil did not make the cut this year, too woody. I planted Roma tomatoes and flat leaf parsley. I can still hear my old neighbor, Carole, from Rhode Island, telling me I had to space the tomato plants further apart. Given the 4'x4' space I have, w/ each of the raised garden beds, I did my best to space them and give them enough height from the soil for the roots to grow down. There is still room for more, 'I'm not sure yet', herbs or plants. We'll see. The Boys helped me this year w/ all the heavy lifting (The Lilley Community Garden). Many cubits of potting soil, mixed w/ many cubits of garden soil, mixed w/ compost. Not to mention the earthworms, night crawlers. All 36 of them, well, now, 35, one went the wrong way, and...

So, here's to a great harvest of a ton of basil for summer salads and 'Amy's Famous Pesto', some hearty, juicy Roma's for sauce and summer salads as well. I especially look forward to the low low hmmmmmmm of the bees!

'Awake, O north wind, And come, wind of the south; Make my garden breathe out fragrance, Let its spices be wafted abroad...' 

Song of Songs 4:16

post script: I accidentally deleted the original post, twice (what's up w/ blogspot today????)...so, hopefully this re-post still paints the picture!!

Check out These Babies....

Here is my first photo of the cherry tomatoes. First photo, yes, but we have been eating them for a couple of weeks now. However, with this July being recorded as the rainiest in 100 years, we have been hit with a fungus called 'blight'. It sounds very ominous, because it is. ' A strain of the fungus that caused the Irish potato famine of the 1840's is on the loose in Rhode Island and is damaging potato and tomato crops,' as reported in the Providence Journal. Unfortunately, my tomatoes have been hit with 'the blight', and daily, I have been cutting back more and more of the molded leaves. It feels like a losing battle, even though the tomatoes are still growing and flowering. It is the leaves which carry the mold. The basil, oregano and parsley are fine. I am sitting here looking at some threatening clouds rolling in. Ahhhh, the learning curve of a City girl in the suburbs and her victory garden. I'll keep you posted, as they say!!!

Even After a Month of RAIN....

Amazing that anything has grown with ALL the rain we've had, but the basil, flat leaf parsley and the oregano are all flourishing and the tomatoes are popping. I bought 30, 6 foot tall bamboo sticks (very inexpensive, a 10 pack for $2!!!!) so the tomatoes can kiss the sun....more to come!