Five Years Later...

Five years ago K. and I married at the boat shop and said our vows in the company of our friends and family.  Its an unbelievable experience to look around the room and see loved ones from all phases of life, and to bring these people together, connected through two people, into one time and place for the purpose of celebrating a union.  

My mom and aunt used perennials and herbs to decorate our lunch tables the day before the ceremony, and clustered their pots into a garden cart outside of our reception on our wedding day.  After our honeymoon we planted the soft pink and fuchsia peonies, yellow yarrow, French lavender, Shasta daisies and Stella de Oro Daylilies in our garden.

Planting a fence of onions

Have you ever nurtured seedlings for several months, then gone out the garden with a basket just before dinner to pick said vegetable, only to find their stumpy remains?

If you’ve read my blog before, you’ve likely come across a post about groundhogs.  This infamous garden pest is a continual source of frustration.  I try to recognize that he or she is a creature just trying to eat, but it doesn’t soothe me when tender beans or baby lettuces just at their peak are mowed down to bitten-off stumps.   We live in a small town loaded with home gardens and few natural groundhog predators. Kurt dislikes relocating groundhogs with the Havahart (which I understand, as I have yet to even attempt it), so I’m always trying something new to discourage the rodents. 

Generations of lablab

I had given up on starting my own seedlings.  Despite a grow light and a cozy spot over the radiator, my seedlings were always spindly, leggy, wan specimens.  Last spring I purchased a dozen varieties of tomato seedlings from our farmers market, as well as lunchbox peppers and various herbs.  Eggplant, zinnia and cosmos starts from our garden supply store rounded out my seedling needs, I seeded the rest directly in the beds.