View from the deck on a glorious morning in early June.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Salvaging 2012

The last time I saw the inside of my greenhouse it was all nice and tidy and full of promise. I had figured out a perfect way to transplant leek babies: use an old broom handle as a dibber to make deep holes so the roots can go all the way down..
Notice nice endive transplants to the side. 
I did a good job getting the tomatoes started, and firmly resolved that this  year we would not allow them to turn into a straggling jungle. This year one day a week would be designated tomato day. No matter what other chores beckoned, the tomatoes would get a thorough watering, get pruned, and get tied up. Yeah, right. We know what happened to this year's best laid plans.
Fast forward 2 months, JUNGLE! I finally got a chance to visit the place. A new young Home Support Worker was sent here for 3 hours to clean. I opted for going outside instead. It took a combination of wheelchair and walker, but by golly we made it! I felt a bit like Moses: just allowed to the edge of the promised land.


Husband had been doing a great job keeping the place watered and ventilated during the day and secured at night, but the tomatoes had gotten away. I had to sit in the entrance while Michelle tied up the tomatoes and picked a huge number of cucumbers. They make a nice addition to the daily juice. I did manage to thin the cylindra beets I had planted in a large container. We had a blast. The next time I made it out there my leg was stronger and I made it all the way to the far end, just to see what was there. 
Swiss chard inside the greenhouse grew to monstrous proportions.
Husband harvested the garlic and hung it up to cure. I started out cleaning the bundles as he brought them in, but I ran out of energy.
I was still very tired for most of August. 
The garden has always been my hobby. It is joy to me, a burden of boring chores that hurt his back to him. 

In the past Old Dutch's contribution has mainly consisted of mowing the lawn and the odd major infra-structure job like fence building. Last year he did the main bulk of raspberry picking, for which I was grateful. Otherwise I have not asked for help.

This year Chris has been doing a great job keeping things alive and harvested. It has made all the difference. The freezer is full of precious frozen raspberries. We have been enjoying fresh green beans daily for weeks and frozen some. We are also getting potatoes, tomatoes, summer squash, cucumber and the inevitable kale. The salad crop, alas, went to seed and was not reseeded but one can't have everything. Overall, I am quite pleased by how much of this garden has been salvaged.

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