Getting a garden going
Classes are over for the year! While I'm pleased to have more time for my own work, I was a bit sad that it was my last class that I'd be TAing at my school. When next I teach a class, it's likely it'll be my own class, not one I'm TA-ing for, which is a scary thought indeed.
This weekend, rather than go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival like, oh, some huge, gigantic number of knitters out there, I stayed home and worked on my paper before and after working in the garden for a bit of hands-on, home-grown sun-and-garden therapy. "We're getting back in touch with the sources of production from which we've been alienated," I believe Coffeeboy said, sounding uncharacteristically Marxist. I was merely waving the hoe around, deciding whether or not to quote Edwin Markham's poem "The Man With the Hoe."
The lilac bush is blooming (and it smells wonderful, but I can't put that online), and it's a sunny day, so I thought I'd show you a picture of the lilac shawl I started a while ago. Don't they go well together? 
Seriously, though, I'm hoping I'll have enoug yarn to make it long enough. I'm almost at the end of ball one out of two, and it's barely 2 feet long! I'm assuming some good old blocking will help once it's all knit up.
We've had a lovely weekend here in NJ, so Coffeeboy and I planted our garden. Yes, we decided to go ahead and do it even though we're moving halfway through the summer. It'll be hard to pick up and leave our plants behind, though, especially when we're not sure what the next person who lives here will do. Will they garden? Or will they just let everything rot and turn into a nasty mess? Will they enjoy the bulbs that, unless we bring them with us, will be sleeping through the summer? We decided, though, that we'll get some edible enjoyment out of the plants, and that we should go ahead and plant anyways.
Those milk cartons (the things that look like bulky white plants) are keeping our pepper plants warm while the weather is in its early spring state. It's cool at night, and peppers don't really like that. If only the milk cartons didn't blow all over the yard during the dark hours, though! It kind of defeats the purpose! 
Here we have an early tomato plant on the left, and on the right, some beans and peas. Yum!
We've also planted eggplant and summer and zucchini squash, plus some canning and salad cucumbers. In front of the beans we planted some old scallion seeds and some lettuce seeds, but those haven't shown their little green heads yet, and they might not - we kind of decided not to add nice compost to the soil, which means the soil there is, um, rather hard indeed, and probably difficult for a small green thing to press through.
If you have a garden, what are you planting this year?
9 comments:
I think that blocking is a knitters friend. Plus, with a shawl, you're not after it being as long as a scarf, or maybe I'm wrong?
Good luck with the paper - who needs S&W festivals anyway? ;)
Morning glories, moonflowers, and sweet peas in planters on the porch. I'm hoping they'll twine up the deck rail balusters.
And only a month or so until the farm share!! I'll be an interesting blogger once more.
Your lilacs are so pretty. I can't wait for them to bloom up here.
I miss lilacs!! Down here in the South, we have crepe myrtles instead -- I think the winters are not cold enough for lilacs (something like that?? but that sounds odd to me). I also was not at MDS&W -- just think how much better our bank accounts will look than all those other knitters, if it's any consolation. :)
Just planting azaleas this year to grow into a nice, natural wall. I'm moving in the next few weeks too, otherwise I would be planting up a storm.
No veggie garden for us. Our yard doesn't get enough sun. The few times we did plant a garden, the birds and squirrels got everything that the bugs and blossom end rot didn't. We'll probably plant hot peppers. And basil, of course. The shawl looks good. I hope you have enough yarn to finish!
Congrats on the end of school! Bittersweet I'm sure. The new shawl looks wonderful (and the lilacs make me wish the internet would carry scent!). Good luck with the garden. We actually had our first salad cutting last night. :)
Jessica
We'll be planting tomatoes, peppers, and sweet basil, and probably calendulas, zinnias, and so on after the frost danger is over.
Lilacs are probably one of the plants that require a certain amount of chilling in order for their next set of buds to break dormancy. I know apple trees do. So, yeah, not cold enough = no lilacs.
We just planted our first garden EVER yesterday; I never thought of covering the plants when it gets cold...hmmm, thanks for the tip!
We planted in planters, not in the ground, and we have several types of lettuce, carrots, peppers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries, and many herbs - four different kinds of mint (including chocolate mint, yum!), three basils, thyme, 2 kinds of parsley, oregano, sage, rosemary, dill, chives...I think that might be it, I can't think of any others.
Best part was, our kids helped :-)
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