A Farmer in the Dell (or the Front Yard)

With help from Brandt and little interest from Blythe, I got the garden planted today.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), because we only garden in pots, we have little to plant, so it all goes pretty quickly.  I planted fourteen tomatoes, three peppers, and two cucumbers.  Also basil in two pots and carrots along the sides of the grow boxes.  We never get enough tomatoes from our grow boxes to do canning (I always have to buy a box or two to make pasta sauce and salsa), so this year I decided to try some more interesting varieties of things.  I planted orange and tie dye tomatoes (yellow with red streaks), lilac peppers (they are a deep purple), and dwarf cucumbers that will still produce normal size cucks, but can be grown in pots.  And the great thing about gardening in pots is that should we move in the next couple of months, we can take the garden with us.

In addition to the veg, we also planted flowers in our small bed.  The bed has been grass level, but our sidewalk was raised about four inches, and this year I finally figured out a way to fix things.  I purchased some plastic edgers that I shoved in the ground around the bed, then filled it in.  It required quite a bit of dirt, but it looks good and will make it possible for the yard care guys to mow the grass without running over the flowers.

Brandt was very keen on helping.  After dinner, he put on his snow pants (farmer overalls) and went out to finish up our job.  He helped with the dirt and the watering.  The hose splurched and sprayed him with mud, but he didn't mind at all.  He was proud of his work, including the filling of his pool which he said he was doing because "his grandson was coming over and he would want to swim."

I suppose this needs explaining.  Kent's maternal grandfather, Grandpa Droubay, was a farmer.  He had sheep and lots of land, a huge garden, and a gun.  Brandt feels a close connection to Grandpa Droubay.  He wants to hear stories about him, and he is excited to inherit his .22 when he gets older.  So whenever any "farming" needs to be done, Brandt puts on his Grandpa Droubay persona and gets to work.    He certainly did that today, with good results.

Our farmer at Vineyard Garden where we purchased our veg.  

Our boy is drawn to tractors wherever they are.

Brandt is showing us where he planted the carrots.  

He stuck with that task through the whole packet of seeds.

Our mud splattered farmer.

This picture kills me.

Brandt is so handsome, and he suddenly is looking so grown.  

This is what he's going to look like when he is 20.

Where does the time go?

With the pool.

I wish it was warm enough to actually get in the pool.

The tags on the tomatoes say "full sun," but I'm not sure we're ever going to have full sun again.

A portable garden for a garden-less house.

My "new" little flower bed, filled with geraniums and petunias.  

Our farmer and his tractor.