20070621

lunch time update

Have I mentioned that summer is the busiest time of the year at work? No students on campus lets us work on the various services/servers we maintain. Then throw in to the mix the fact our vacation count resets on July 1st so there is an annual scramble to use up the last of the vacation days as there is no rollover or similar options. Lots to do and random staff members are unavailable for weeks at a time. Definitely keeps things interesting.

The garden at home is moving along. The 3 sisters experiment is only at 66% as the beans have not been working out for me. The corn and squash are going just fine. The beans planted when the squash were planted never came up. Waited for two weeks, saw nothing, went back, read the packages, soaked the seeds overnight and tried again. I think a grand total of three sprouted (of at least 20 planted). Now I am concerned the three will not survive as they are shaded by the squash leaves. In other parts of the garden, the tomatoes are doing well. The five store bought plants are coming along, as well as the two volunteers transplanted from the mulch pile. Two of the store bought plants lost their main trunk and are no longer growing up. Otherwise they are healthy. The spinach and lettuce are starting to look like they intend to actually grow but, as with the pole beans, not nearly the number seeded are coming up. I think I need to purge the bag of seeds I have accumulated over the last two years. The various bush beans are growing. Last years sage plant became a bush, bloomed and had to be dramatically cut back before it took over.

And everything I do in my little vegetable garden pales in comparison to the flower garden my wife has done this year. Four trees have been planted. Two different dogwoods, a japanese maple and a weeping corkscrew thing whose name I am blanking on. Add to the list the tree Chinese red wood we got last year and I think have finally broken even with the number of trees we have removed or lost since we moved in 5 years ago. There are flowers and shrubs in three different beds in the front yard, and in the back there are two starter beds and the 3/4ths of the perimeter getting filled in with various plants and shrubs. Planting books have overtaken cook books in her bookshelf. I really need to get some pictures of it all. Hopefully I will also remember to post some. *grin*