This has been a rather odd year for the garden. The last 2-3 years have had a long spring with lots of overcast and some snow or threats of snow. Because of this, it seems as though my tomatoes have not grown an inch since I’ve planted them, plus, I’ve already lost two. Thank goodness for the one volunteer that came up from last year. I would plant more in the front yard, but the soil is so clay-y and I need to sit Ralph down to discuss areas that he will need to voice opinions over (namely the area where he needs to get into to fiddle with the sprinklers).

What is growing is either suffering from immediate harsh sun; bleaching flowers or crisping leaves. The new peony and penstemon I bought this year will have to show me what they got next year because they are looking shot.

As far as amending the soil in the front yard, I was using this one spray that was seeming to work miracles, but not enough to let some plants thrive. I’ll have to find a way to dig up the soil and amend it for next year. If I do it now, I’m hoping that I might at least be able to plant in the fall. Everything is just so stunted that I feel like this year is lost. Let’s hope that I’m wrong.

This weekend was supposed to be fairly low-key with my only goal being to plant my seedlings. Then a client who I’ve been checking in with for months about doing their web site called to say they needed it up ASAP. So Friday, Saturday and Sunday was spent working on the site and getting it up for a Monday launch.

I found a half hour on Saturday to work on my smallest veggie bed. This year it is the bed of experimentation. I’m growing scallions, romanesco broccoli and cabbage all from seed. I had to rearrange it a bit due to the horrible soil I got that is nearly pure clay. Because of that, my scallions are too clumped together and the broccoli and cabbage grew on bent stems. I spaced these all out a bit better and hope they survive because today they are looking ragged.

Today, Sunday, I planted all of my tomatoes, eggplants, okra, watermelon and lemon cucumbers in the remaining beds. The artichokes have a few baby buds and the peas finally have blooms. My Kentucky Wonder Beans are looking a little runtish. Unfortunately, with trying 4 new things this year, I ran out of room for the zucchini and other squash. Decided to fill in the front garden with these, making it a true cottage garden. I had to plant the seeds in the sunniest of spots remaining inside the fence because the thought of them being outside the fence bugs me for some reason. The soil in horrible, so I’ll take the next day or two to think of alternate places to throw a few seeds in. There’s always the border around the backyard. I just consider that iffy since we don’t have a soaker hose in place there yet. Maybe it’s time to just put one in since I plan on focusing my efforts on filling that in next year.

I was hoping to email both Angela and Brian before the weekend ended, but I guess that will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Oh yeah, one branch on the thought-dead rhododendron has blooms. Maybe I’ll just move the poor thing one more time to see if it will survive after all. My peonies are also looking a bit runtish. Will give them a good dose of bulb food when it’s time to cut them back. They were barely over a foot this year. Got plenty of blooms from them, but the plant is supposed to be about 3′ tall.