Day 65 - Planting "Poo"

Whoo Hoo!  The garden is finally in!  Well, I keep adding things to the garden throughout the growing season so technically it isn't "done."  However, the main crops that need to be planted finally are.  Now I just need to keep up with weeding and mulching.

Clark and I put the dahlias in during Grant's morning nap.  Of course, Clark now thinks the dahlias are poo - so we planted poo today.  Why you ask does my 3 year old think we planted poo?  That was my mistake.  Clark was a great helper.  He handed me (lifted them so I could reach them) fence posts so I could pound them in, helped me dig the holes (by jumping in them on occasion as well as digging them out), and handing me the tubers to put in the ground (he was amazingly gentle with them).  So, I started telling him the variety names that were written on the tubers as I wrote them in my garden journal.  What variety did Clark decide to start with?  Yes, Pooh (like Winnie the Pooh).  From that point on we were planting "poo."  Now quite frankly I can see how a 3 year old could come to this conclusion - if you have never seen a dahlia tuber before they could in a 3 year old mind look like poo.  Didn't matter that I named off all the rest for him the deed was done and there was no changing his mind.  Still many thanks to my wonderful dahlia growing friends who provided us with some dahlias to plant!  When I used to grow dahlias competitively (well, let's say I took them to the fair for competition - I was never competitive in the dahlia classes) my favorite variety was Pooh and I was very sad when I lost mine a few years ago.  So it is wonderful to have 3 planted in my garden again this year.  It really is a cute little flower.  I'll show pictures when it blooms!

After supper Clark and I put in all of the pumpkins, gourds, winter squash, sunflowers, tomatoes (well 30 of them, still have at least that many left in the cold frame), cucumbers, watermelon and cantaloupe.  Earlier this spring I let Clark pick out some seeds that would be all his own.  He picked some sunflowers and gourds.  I made the hills for him and poked 3 holes on the top of each hill.  As we did each new packet I handed Clark 3 seeds to put in the hill.  He planted them and covered them up and patted each hill down.  He's excited to have "snake" gourds.  Although I think he believes they'll grow pre-painted like on the package.  I did tell him that will be one of our fall craft activities - painting gourds.  He's doubly excited now!

Also utilized all the old wire gates that were lying around here.  Set them on posts and put a different variety of cucumber by each one to encourage upward growth rather than ground spread.  Should make harvesting easier.  Did the same thing with the watermelon and cantaloupe.  We plan to utilize old nylon stockings to hold the large fruits to the wire as they grow.

Clark had all kinds of fun outside.  We let him stay up late since we really wanted to beat the rain.  He was a good sport.  Plus he got to see a rainbow, he stacked a very large pile of rocks (can't beat that - he actually goes in search of rocks to build his pile), saw some of the first lightning bugs, planted seeds, watched seeds grow (literally throughout the day if we had the right kind of camera you could have shot the beans growing - there was a whole row up in the evening that had just been poking through in the morning) and saw a mama barn swallow up close.

By the time it was dark (9:30 or later) I was planting the last of the tomatoes utilizing the light coming from the yard light.  Not sure I'll be able to decipher the notes in my garden journal for those last few but oh well I think I can figure it out by matching the fruits to earlier planted/labeled tomatoes.

Whew!  We do still need to plant the isminis (not sure that's spelled right - these are a bulb my grandma always raised and now so do many members of her family) and the peppers.  Oh yes, and the blackberries and raspberries I picked up for the perennial area of the garden.  Whoops, and still have the herbs to pot up.  Well, if I find some space there are still carrots and beets.  Hmm, and lettuce if I can find a nice shady location.  See, the bulk may be in but it really never ends!  Just means more fun and learning for Clark and me when it dries up!