Busy week

Wow, I have been up to a lot since my last post. Marc and I built three 4x4 raised beds in the driveway this last weekend. Kyle is bringing me a truckload of Leafgro-soil mix from Hollins Organics today; Marc is making Julie a website and in exchange, Kyle is bringing me truckloads of dirt. Very exciting. This weekend I planted some spinach, carrots and beets in one of the grow boxes, and my kale is coming up. I planted some more lettuce in with the stuff that overwintered from last year. My tomatoes are going like gangbusters now. I've given a few away, bt I still have plenty. I think I'm going to have at least 8 plants, one of each variety I started. I ordered some heirloom Anatolian melon seeds on ebay which arrived yesterday; it didn't occur to me that they were actually coming from Turkey, but there they are. I started basil, dill and tomatillos in pots. Once I get the dirt in the beds, I can start on the bamboo trellises for the cucumbers and melons. It's going to be cool to see just how much stuff I can grow in just three boxes.

It's going to be in the mid 90' s today, just like yesterday. One week ago yesterday I was wearing a down coat and a wool hat. It's just crazy. It's supposed to cool off this weekend and be a bit more seasonally appropriate. I'm hoping to get at least some stuff planted this weekend. Marc and I are going to Florida next week, and I don't want to leave my mom a houseful of needy seedlings to take care of while I'm away.

Work has been so stressful , it is really nice to have a distraction. But now that it's nice out and I have other projects that I love, it's easier to forget about work once I get home. I've been working in the garden a lot, I've been weeding and cleaning out flower beds. They are coming tomorrow to trim the black walnut branches, which should give me some more light and less icky mess in the fall.

I released the bees on Saturday; I put their house up under the overhang of the deck. They have been out, but it's not quite the level of activity I imagined. They do seem to be going in the tubes and stuff, so hopefully they'll do OK. I've already rescued a few that made their way into the house. I have been trying to defend them from the damned carpenter bees which are out in full force in the backyard. I just wonder if the carpenter bees are attacking them. They are just so territorial, it's amazing. They don't sting, but they will just hover 12" from your face.

And, I threw out a few of my little flower bombs in the vacant lots at work, I am hoping for the best. I'm curious to see if they work. I was going to toss a few in the park by our house too, where they just cleared out a bunch of stuff. I figured some of them have to come up. They are all native wildflowers, so it's not like I'm releasing some sort of invasive plague. It's just butterfly and bird habitat as far as I'm concerned.

So, more pictures soon... We are going to gunpowder falls tonight after work to see the bluebells blooming.