Hello dear readers,

I write to you from our kitchen table, an oversized mug of coffee beside me. Franklin sleeps at the far side of the table, where he catches his paws in the lace half curtains, one of his favourite pastimes¹.

This weekend is the first real sign of spring after six months of cold, wet weather. Yesterday (Saturday) was seventeen degrees, and today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday) will be in the low twenties. Technically unseasonable, but after the dreary winter we had, I’ll take it.

Besides, I’m more than ready to get out into the garden, and luckily, that’s just what I’ve done. On Friday my sister and I went to my grandparents’ house and helped transplant a number of hollyhocks². We also harvested some purple dead nettle from the back field³ and planted calendula along the dahlia bed.

The following day, I took advantage of the warmth and planted a few flowers in the back yard. I may have mentioned that I bought climbing nasturtium seeds last month, and so those have now gone into the bed along the fence. Then I transplanted some flowers I started indoors last month: chrysanthemum, lavatera, marigold, and morning glory⁴.

I believe I mentioned earlier that we’ve done an overhaul of the backyard—last weekend, I added the entire rock border that dictates where the (now massive) garden bed will be. This weekend, I did the dreaded weeding of the path areas, at least in part⁵, and I’m happy to say it looks much better than it did.

The other day, I went to the store and bought my potato seedlings—much later than I would have liked—and so those will go into the ground this week. I also bought a number of other seeds, including cucumbers, sunflowers, giant watermelons, and loofa gourds⁶, another plant I only learned about recently.

As for the seedlings that are already growing: my purple bell peppers have taken off, as have at least some of my rainbow tomatoes. The mini bell peppers are struggling, but that’s ok. I have a feeling that, between my mom, grandma, and I, we’re going to have more vegetables than we know what to do with!

A small section on dreams: my friend sent me a video yesterday where a woman detailed everything she did to make her garden fairy-like, including tons of solar lights. I’m beginning to think I should get a few; we do have string lights, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a few mushroom-shaped lights for the paths! 

And one final note, because my grandpa deserves an award. For context, they have a large back field where they used to grow rhubarb to sell. They no longer do this, and so it’s been relatively empty for the past ten or so years, aside from my small pumpkin patch the last few seasons. But my grandpa, being the star that he is, rototilled the entire thing! He told me to plant whatever I want: the pumpkins and squash, of course, but he suggested I try flowers as well. I almost don’t even know where to start, but boy am I excited to get in there. You can expect lots of photos to come.

I believe that’s all for the garden record this week. Today and tomorrow I’ll putter around and pull a few more weeds, and start my pumpkin and squash seeds indoors, too. I hope your week is going well, and that spring has shown its face in your corner of the world.

Until next time.

—Catherine

footnotes

¹ I don’t know what it is about those curtains, but he loves grabbing at them with his little paws. He’s gentle about it, too, so I have no idea what he thinks he’s doing, but I support it.

² We did about twelve, and there are another twelve or so that still need to grow a bit before they make their way outdoors. Tragic that they won’t bloom until next year!

³ I’d seen the plant before, but only learned what it was (and what it was good for) in the last month or so. We gathered enough to dry out and make tea for both of us.

⁴ Listen, I know morning glory will take over if you let it, but these ones have beautiful blue flowers! And I’m going to be careful to not let them get into the other beds.

⁵ My mom loves weeding, and so she did a good chunk last weekend (Thankfully! What would I do without her.)

⁶ I can’t believe it took me this long to understand that these things even exist… very much looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

Like this post and want to see more? Type your email into the space above to receive updates when new blog posts are added, head over to the blog’s main page, or click the “next” or “previous” buttons below.

---

Home | About | My Books | Publications | Newsletter | Contact