Garden Start

Brett had a face scrubbing, peeling, frying procedure yesterday for his skin cancer.  Every few months he goes to see the dermatologist and gets a head-to-toe exam with suspicious spots removed and biopsied.  He hasn't had a malignant spot for quite a few years now but the testing will continue regularly.  Last time he went in, there were so many spots on his face (not like he works outside a lot or anything), that they scheduled him for this procedure to get everything at once.  He's been confined to the house since yesterday morning and won't be allowed outside until tomorrow afternoon(and even then he has to wear sunscreen and a wide brimmed hat).  Picture a bad sunburn on steroids and you've got him -- painful.

He knew that I wanted to get my Skoog rhubarb into the ground this weekend.  I was going to use one of the existing planters in the garden.  There are a number of old vegetable beds, outlined in the kind of block I used to make shelves in my first apartment.  The beds are chocked full of dead weeds and onions.  There was no way Brett was going to let me plant in them.  Before his procedure, Brett built me a raised planter box; nice and high so I don't have to kneel down to plant. He lined it with wire so gophers can't get in and pull the plants down to their underworld.

This morning, I went to the nursery to buy planting mix after hitting the farmers market.  The nursery was huge, with demonstration gardens; deer resistant, attract butterflies, planting under oaks, drought resistant, and more.  There were rows and rows of vegetables and herbs.  I'm used to seeing a small section - two rows maybe - of vegetables and herbs at the nursery.  Down south, the focus on annuals was huge.  Here, their are annuals but also row after row of vegetables.  There was a whole row of lettuce - butter, romaine, red, and mixes six ways to Sunday.  I bought my planting mix but I also bought lettuce, parsley, lemon thyme (my favorite herb), chives, rhubarb and sugar snap peas.

I used sticks from the pasture to make climbing poles for the sugar snap peas.

I did not use Winston's stick.  He carries this branch around like a club, alternately whacking the other horses with it and chewing on it the rest of the time.  When he isn't playing with his stick, he has his front leg in the water trough splashing the water out onto the ground. I'm not sure if he is a horse or a puppy.

My Skoog Friendship Rhubarb is tucked into bed, nice and snug, with a small starter from the nursery next to it.  I had to leave 75% of my rhubarb behind -- I didn't have enough pots to bring it all.  It was very happy at Aspen Meadows and I'm hoping it will be equally happy here.

I did chores as the sun bathed the hills behind us in its golden light.  The pastures are starting to turn green; the days are warm (70s) and the nights are cold (30s).  Its definitely fall in our valley.