Halfway there

Today, despite it being in the mid-40s, I put in half of the garden: four rows of potatoes (red, yukon and purple), two rows of green beans, and four rows of wax beans, plus ample sunflower seeds, red, small yellow and giant. When I return from my travels, I will put in the more perishable greens such as tomato plants, peppers (chiles, habañero, serano, Thai purple, the hotter the better), parsley, cilantro, tomatillos and such. The big ugly black plastic is covering up where the peppers will go. I will have to clean out all the dandelions from the back part of the garden for tomatoes.

What this picture doesn't show well is that by the low fence to the left of the hoed earth is an asparagus patch (mixed in with raspberry bushes). I haven't weeded it very well, just enough around the asparagus plants that they can grow. The lilac hasn't started blooming yet but soon it will (big shrub/tree by the driveway). And by the shed there will be hollyhocks.

The play yard belongs to the church; the fence behind it delineates the church property from the neighbours' (with the rusted roof on their barn). Their property really is carved out of one corner of the church property; part of the property line is the church apse itself! The parish hall is hidden by the two large maples, but you can barely make out the sacristy door to the right and the tower to the left. The rectory sits on a double-wide piece of property but I see no thought ever of selling it because then we would be boxed in (the property goes all the way out to the street such that the church has the entire front of a block).

When I moved in here 13 years ago this coming July, I was absolutely blown away to find a planted garden in the back. As a welcome, parishioners had put in potatoes, zuccini, squash, tomatoes and beans. I had never had a garden before so this present was a huge undertaking. I was incredibly touched and wanted to do well by their efforts. Ever since then, I have honoured this wonderful gift by planting a garden each spring, even though I now leave out the zuccini and squash because they grow too easily and if ever I want some, there's no trouble finding any.