July 2. 2010: A Stroll Through the East Garden

My neighbor, Pat, forgot to turn off her home alarm before she went outside for the morning paper, so I was rudely awakened at 6:30 sharp. Not wanting to waste a cool morning, I jumped out of bed, put on my dirty clothes from yesterday, made a pot of coffee and headed for the garden for another day's work. It has to be done soon, as my weekend will be taken up with shopping and cooking for our Fourth of July family get together, and we're expecting temperatures in the mid-90s by Wednesday.

First I picked the green beans, then I cleaned out the former snap pea bed, amended it with composted manure and 10-10-10, then planted it with 2 rows of Top Crop bush beans (45 seeds). Next I trimmed Pat's hedge where it grows into my garden space. She has it professionally done, but they don't come into my fenced back yard/garden to do that section like her old gardener always did. While I was in that section of the garden, I pruned low hanging and dead branches from the lilac tree, and removed as many spent blossoms as I could reach.

Back in the main (east) garden I decide it was time to pull the last of the Walla Walla sweet onions.

The stems were all down, and the tips of them were turning brown. It's a good thing I pulled them when I did, as two had already rotted in the ground.

I hung them on the fence to dry for a couple of days, then I'll tie up the stems and finish curing them in the garden shed.

They sized up nicely, didn't they?

Then I pulled most of the lettuce from east bed # 8. I kept 2-3/4 pounds of it, composted the rest. I don't know where I'll put the lettuce, the fridge is full.

With the onions pulled, and the empty space from pulling the broccoli yesterday, I decided the basil, which was looking a bit puny in the pots, would benefit from being planted into the garden. One pot was very close to being root bound, so I'm sure it will appreciate its new home.

I cleaned up all the prunings and clippings and bolted lettuce and their trimmings, filling the compost barrel clear to the top. The garden looked a bit bare, but neat and tidy. A good day's work, and I was finished by noon. I think we're ready for a stroll through the east garden!

We finished our stroll just in time....here comes the rain! It never rains here in July. So much for drying the onions today.