Tuesday, June 19, 2012

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Tuesday starts off nice and sunny.   Plans to go outside and play in the garden change .. as DH & I head off to the local airport.

Early lunch.

Tuesdays, Dak prepares authentic Vietnamese food and today this is curried chicken!  With 2 decadent pork deep-fried egg rolls.  I’m so hungry after a few days of not being able to eat much .. and chow down.  Still, need help from my DH to finish the generous portion of curried chicken, rice, pea pods and green peppers.

A few cups of tea and then we are outside … DH to prep the plane for our flight .. and me .. to tend to the garden outside the restaurant.  I’ll post a few pics later.

Due to the magical mix of EM, lots of sun and ample rain .. all the plants are growing well.  Except .. a bit of care is needed.  The Calendula flowers are rapidly going to seed and need to be ruthlessly cut down ..  no worries .. they will grow again.

I was so busy clipping and watering, that I didn’t take pics .. but will remedy this next week.  For yesterday, though, I showed tough love  .. cutting away the sections that were going to seed ( I have tons of Calendula seeds anyway).  The Mallow plants (like mini-lavatera) are at least 3 feet high, the seed heads have been forming and so it is time to cut them down.   I have millions of lavatera seeds collected from previous years, so no worries.

The lavender and pansy flowers are quite lush.   The sages are also flowering and I’m hoping to collect seeds from the purple and the green/white variegated sages .. this year.

The Rosemary plants are thriving.  As a matter of fact, all of the plants here are drought tolerant .. that’s why I chose them .. so they are tough as nails.

Next time I go out there, I’ll take lots of pics to share!

So I connected the hose and started watering the plants .. until it was time to fly away!

Being that it was such a beautiful sunny day .. the airport was kind of busy, so we had to wait a little bit before we took off.

What a marvellous time we had .. flew local .. I never get tired of this.  And so thankful that DH provided me with ground school and hours of co-pilot time (with the most wonderful instructor, Kirsten .. she is the best . an amazing instructor) last year.

I am so very happy when we are up in the air.  And, really, not having a sense of direction ..I’m ever so content to sit in the passenger seat!

Loved seeing the fluffy clouds way up high in the sky.  Seeing the tidy ploughed fields below.  the farms looking like little play toys.

After our flight, DH allowed me to dismiss my co-pilot duties and continue on to the garden so that I could finish a thorough watering of the garden area outside of the Dakota Cafe.

Not having my clippers, kneeling pads, and other gardening paraphernalia . .I worked away with a cutting knife, deadheading flowers and then watering the beds.   I’ll work more next week.  I love this volunteer gardening at the cafe .. and have plans to liven up the planter pots.

So tea … and relax in the sun for a bit.

Later, back home .. time to continue with the side yard plantings.  More boxwood cuttings are planted, along with the Southernwood.

And .. emptying the styrofoam planters .. I see the amazing root formations that have taken place on the Southernwood and the other cuttings, including the cedar cuttings.  These I tried, just for the heck of it, last fall.

Yesterday, when I removed the green cedar sections (branch tips) from the planters .. I didn’t actually see roots .. but, I did see the sturdy thick layer forming at the bottom of the stems .. which appear to be the beginnings of hardy roots.   So .. I coat these in mycorrhizal powder and put them all in a single pot … for the summer.  Then, in the fall, I’ll put them back in one of the styrofoam rooting planters.

Then, time to empty the Rubbermaid containers full of seaweed.    Place some around the garlic, some around the squash and tomato plants.  Some, also, in the new veggie section where I will be planting the Kentucky beans .. today, definitely.

I see that Yorkshire Tea has a contest on right now .. a chance to win a YT teapot .. so I quickly fill out the online form and submit.  Fingers, toes and eyes crossed.

This was  quite a day.  Spent mostly in the garden .. with a lovely bit of time way up in the sky with my sweetie ….   it was a great day!

🙂