Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Wonderful Holiday Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend! The weather was beautiful and we spent a lot of quality family time working on the garden, harvesting greens and putting in my son's carrot bed. It's 2x2 and almost 18 inches deep, to hold the seeds of a record setting length carrot a nice person from the Square Foot Gardening forum sent to my son. He's so excited about growing them and having his own bed! I planted radishes in the bed as well, since Carrots Love Tomatoes recommended doing so.

I also took a road trip and met another forum member, and she sent me home with lots of plants! I took her some borage to plant with her tomatoes, and she sent me home with english thyme, sage, a Poona Kheera cucumber, a Zucchino Rampicante squash, five Country Gentleman Sweet Corn plants, two mystery peppers (she's not sure if they're the sweet variety or the hot one!) and two more tomatoes! I planted them in the newly harvested greens box and I look forward to enjoying her generous gifts. It was great to meet someone else who has caught the SFG bug!

She also recommended a great little place called DeBaggio's Herb Farm. I could have spent hours exploring that place! I can get a bit OCD about acquiring herb varieties so I came home with banana mint (I'm still searching for ginger mint!), anise hyssop, and a horseradish plant for my husband. We tried to plant a root of horseradish but it didn't grow, unlike his beloved rhubarb, which he mentions whenever we walk by its little green leaves.

My husband recently gifted me with a new book called Your Backyard Herb Garden that's chock full of great information about herbs, including how to grow them, how to propagate them, and how to use them. I love browsing through its beautiful pages, even if I fear that it will lead to my deck becoming overrun with herbs! The herb farm had quite a few of the herbs I'm missing, so a return visit is likely. I'm hoping to put in a wheel herb garden, but that's not a project for this year.

I snapped some pictures of the gardens, the deck, and the tires I use as planters, which I'll post as soon as I find the card reader. I swear I need to put a homing device on that little gadget!

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend.

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