Good morning and hello from the east coast!! Last week the HH drove me and Lucy all the way across the country so we could spend an extended period of time at our vacation home this summer. There is SO MUCH TO DO… and it’s AWESOME.
Before I headed east I planted my tomato starts in containers on the patio and left detailed instructions for the HH. All he needs to do is keep the containers and garden beds watered and plant a few seeds for me on May 15th and June 1st. If all goes well, The Girl and I should pull into Stepford mid June to a lush vegetable garden growing in the backyard.
Clearly I believe in miracles. 😉
I have a list about a mile long of all the projects I want to tackle here on the east coast this summer. The first thing on the agenda is to get the vegetable garden planted {of course it is!!}. I’ll be here for about 45 days this time around so I really have to be careful about what I plant.
Yesterday I planted a few quickie vegetable seeds {spinach, lettuce, radish, and compact zucchini}. My hope is that I’ll be able to harvest those things before I leave.
We will be back in late summer to harvest things like tomatoes, potatoes and squash, so yesterday morning I stopped by the local greenhouse {run by a local lady and her daughters} and picked up a few vegetable starts.
18 tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, 18 onion starts, Swiss chard and a 6 pack of strawberries. We have a few strawberry plants growing alongside the house but I want to transplant them to the garden bed and needed a few more to fill in the row.
I’ll plant things like beans, basil and cucumbers the day before I leave {and then mulch like crazy}. I did that last summer and everything seemed to work out fine.
It doesn’t look like much, but this garden bed is about the size of 6 of my raised garden beds at home and is just the right size to keep up with at this stage in the game.
Swiss chard and onions, happy in their new home.
Later today I’ll get strawberries, tomatoes and carrot seeds in the ground.
I can’t even begin to tell you how good it feels to have a list of projects about a mile long and a new garden bed to plant vegetables in. Life is good.
~Mavis
Amy says
Welcome back to the East! I’m not on the coast, but I’m only a few hours drive from it. I also have a list 10 miles long! I have a question, how do you deal with/prevent pests? Especially while you’re gone. I Go out to my garden everyday and I’m battling slugs, aphids, and lizards (eating my strawberries). I spray my soap for aphids, I pick slugs off, I do beer traps, I don’t even know what to do about the lizards … I think I’m just outnumbered.
Mavis Butterfield says
I have no idea what to do about your lizards but for slugs I always sprinkle a little Sluggo down in the garden. I didn’t do ANYTHING last summer to deter pests in my the east coast garden and everything miraculously still grew. This year I plan to mulch like crazy before I head back home but other than that… I just hope for the best. Probably not the answer you were looking for though. 😉
Linda says
Mavis, I don’t know if you’re aware of the blog by Soulemama. She lives in Maine and is a lot like you, always something to look forward to. Amanda has a small farm, she sews, knits, quilts, spins, gardens, cans, etc.etc. If that isn’t enough, she self publishes the magazine Taproot. If you’re interested her blog is : http://www.soulemama.com I know you’ll enjoy it.
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! Her pictures are total eye candy.
Stacie says
How do you deal with watering the East Coast garden when you’re away? When I go on vacation I have my garden soaker hoses set on timers but when it rains I can’t turn them off from afar so my garden ends up saturated. Any tips on how you handle this would be fabulous!
Mavis Butterfield says
I actually don’t have a watering system in place here yet other than a hose. I had a neighborhood kid water twice last summer but other than that… I just mulch like crazy and hope for the best. Our soil is really good here and I think that helps a bit.
Teri says
I was wondering about your watering system also! Glad to hear you are enjoying your time away!