Off & On Weather!

Hello again!

The week has been busy in many ways, so there's been little time for the garden. And, of course, the weather has been difficult. The spring tornadoes that pounded the areas south of Lancaster moved through south central PA with some touching down in York and Lebanon counties, but caused no problem here. Wednesday was pleasant so I was able to get some garden chores done, but Thursday was stormy with heavy rain. Today was overcast and cool so I was able to get out and do some work that didn't involve playing in the very wet dirt.  But there's great hope for excellent gardening weather Saturday (tomorrow) only to be followed by another rainy spell beginning Sunday.

Today is the last day for the seedlings outside the window. It's time for them to get into the bed where they'll spend the summer. There's cucumbers, squash, peppers, and tomatoes. The beans planted last week have already begun to sprout. The peas have gotten to a height that I had to put up the poles and twine for them to grow on. I'll get the pole bean seeds in the ground tomorrow, too.

The radishes in a container seem to be thriving. I've planted the seeds in containers due to the fact that the garden soil seems to contain radish maggots which feed on the radish roots. But, they did well in containers last year, soooooo...

The picture above is the debut of our Japanese Red Maple.  Like many things in the garden, it is in a container.  The fun thing about this beautiful tree is how it came to be here. Five years ago, I was out in the yard near the house when my eyes caught a glimpse of something red next to the sidewalk. When I looked closely, I saw that it was a sprout with two tiny red leaves. It was no more than two inches tall. I carefully dug it out and placed it in a flowerpot. The odd part about this is that there are no Japanese Maples in our neighborhood that I'm aware of, and certainly none in the yards adjacent to ours. And it survived and grew. Each year since then it's moved to a bigger container. Today it stands five feet tall and is a really wonderful gift from mother nature!  Always keep your eyes open when you're out in your garden. You never know what you might find! And hopefully it wont be poison ivy.

Perhaps next week won't be quite so busy & I'll have more time here.  See you soon!