I know them by name

Rutgers, Pink Brandywine, Bloody Butcher, Sweet 100s, Marglobe, Chocolate Cherry, Polish Linguisa, Roma, Amish Paste, Black Krim......

Yesterday was brutal. No doubt about it. I was outside by 8:30 and worked until around 3:00 in the garden. All of the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants went in along with a flat of what seemed like hundreds of zinnias that I grew from last year's crop. 

As I was stretching from the sides of the garden to the middle or from the middle to the sides, I thought this might be like yoga and could actually be good for me. That, along with carrying 40 pound bags of cow manure made for a big day in the garden and an Advil night. Of course, there was clean up but I consider piling up dirty and empty bins as about it for clean up after a day like that.

The reward was knowing everything that had to get in the ground was in the ground and ready for a predicted evening rain. And on the "7th day," I took a 90 minute nap in the hammock.

 

It was like a bad dream this morning when I went outside and saw this mess. Gardening hangover.

Just three bins of assorted tomatoes left. They weren't marked and those that I could identify I really didn't need more of. I'm keeping these just in case there is another tomato tragedy this year. I can plop these in the ground if need be.

And this is all I have left of flowers to put in--three flats of a combination of marigolds, cosmos and more zinnias. There are three flats of tomatoes and peppers that I never transplanted. I'm keeping these in reserve, too. Just in case.....

The tomatoes sure do look tiny in the garden. That's because they are! I labeled some of them because this year, I want to experiment with seed saving. Since I have had excellent results saving flower seeds, I think I might try saving tomato seeds.

Parsnips, two kinds of green beans, two varieties of beets and some leeks and eggplants in this section. Except for the beans, everything else is puny.

With the end of tulip and daffodil season, we move into another season of blooms. They are all my favorites and I like how there is always some color waiting around the corner.

My fist cosmos that I started from seed. Some zinnias and some nasturtium leaves. They make me laugh. They are like tiny lilly pads.

There are lots of seedlings in this curved area. Picky work. By the end of planting them, I was laying on my side barely able to reach for the next plant!

I'm liking the look of my shade garden. The bricks were salvaged from the old culvert construction at the end of my driveway. I hate throwing anything out.