I have been absolutely down for the count since the baby brought home something and then sneezed and wiped her nose all over me so I got it too. She was over it in a few days but it is just haaaaaaanging on with me.
Not to jinx it, but I may be starting to feel a wee bit better, which is good because my friend Gayla sent out a very excellent substack about the late May garden anxiety, and I am right there. Most of my starts are still in their temporary homes, and some are starting to look incredibly sad. I may see if I can venture to the community garden within the next 48 hours and at least get some of them in. The rest of the peppers and tomatoes need to go into their pots too (the peppers are FLOWERING and it kills me to pinch them back).
Speaking of my community garden, there is a lovely little orchard that’s part of it that everybody chips in to take care of, and what an absolute treasure that is. Apples, cherries, currants, haskaps, blueberries, rhubarb, pears, plums (maybe?), raspberries, grapes… all things I wouldn’t have the room for in my yard. Seriously, it’s such an amazing resource. It’s my first year at the garden, and I don’t plan on ever leaving.
That’s been about the extent of what I’ve done lately, besides knitting a few rows of a new sweater for the aforementioned baby.
The thing I started this year was creating a garden along the back fence. There are trees there, and a little rock border, but the previous owners I’m pretty sure hated plants, and they left it bare dirt which they sprayed with chemicals to keep the weeds down. Several years on now, and I’m slowly starting to make it into something beautiful. I planted hollyhocks, a raspberry, a strawberry that’s perennial here (I got it from Fort Edmonton Park and have no idea of the variety), some Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium boreale) and columbine (Aquilegia formosa). I’m doing the back fence area in sections since the they need a lot of work in the weed and soil department. When I tested the soil two summers ago, the soil was basically depleated. Considering the lack of life (except for weeds), that wasn’t too surprising. The trees even looked stressed out. So I’ve spent the past few years adding soil and nutrients. I’ve been rewarded with massive amounts of bugs and worms I’ve seen move in, so I’m going to keep slowly creating these areas as I work on the soil.
