Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary

When the boy and I were gearing up for our big six week European adventure, we were anxious about leaving our new place behind for that length of time. During our years separate and together, we had amassed a collection of indoor and outdoor plants, that are near and dear to our hearts. One of the great things about our new dwelling, is that it offers us an outdoor garden space. Not too much, but just enough to make the gardening a real workout and to give us square footage to experiment with. That being said, leaving behind our little garden was a little sad - we did not know what to expect upon our return. A good friend came over a couple of times a week, to take care of some indoor and outdoor watering. But we knew that the outdoor plants were less protected and were subject to the great, wild outdoors.

This was what we found when we came back:

The snap peas did grow wild. Weeds were everywhere and the lovely lemon thyme that was planted in the ground was buried underneath more weeks. The bay tree popped off- it was two times bigger than what we had left and insurgent parsleys were sprouting throughout the entire garden.

We spent about four hours weeding, tilling, fertilizing and watering the soil. The end result was extremely satisfying. It was a beautiful, blank slate for us to work with.

We moved the mint- that were suffering with its limited growing space in the pots and planters to the space where the giant parsley had been. Now it can have all the space it wants for its roots.

We completed our garden overhaul with some starter plants and seeds. We bought 4 cherry tomatoes, 12 snap beans from Whole Foods and 3 Italian basils from Hortica. From seeds, we planted a row of Japanese cucumber, red peppers and 2 rows of carrots. The lemon thyme was moved to a nice, private space next to the bay tree and the planter box that used to house the mint, is now filled with cilantro seeds. There is some real estate left in the hanging garden that we need to fill as well.