One Busy, Busy Saturday!

We started our day out at the Farmer's Market. I tried one of Mazzi's pizzas for breakfast and it was very good! There was a nice crowd at the Market, even though the day was cool and overcast. I am still waiting for the first day that I can wear shorts and sandals and complain that it's a bit hot out! After eating we did a little shopping. I picked up my second Sweet Potato plant.

This was an amazing display of new potatoes. Six different kinds to try!

As always the flowers were beautiful . The bouquets are slowly changing with the calendar. Peonies, fox glove and bachelor buttons are replacing lilacs and iris.

This was a stunning peony plant for sale in a 5-gallon bucket.

Once we got home, Dad and I headed down to the garden. Our task for the morning was to take the piles of dirt left over from last summer and fill in low areas of the garden. He used his bucket to transport the soil and I helped point out areas of need. He then used his tractor blade and tried to level out the whole garden in preparation for our first tilling of the year. Everything went really well and we have plans to till the garden after I get done with work on Monday. Finally!

When we finished that big project, I returned back to the house and worked on the vegetable bed. I planted my new "Georgia Jet" Sweet Potato in the empty grow bag. Then I planted the four "Mixed Colors" Morning Glory plants that I purchased at Down to Earth. This mix promises blooms of Purple, Magenta & White. Now my only concern as they get settled in are the birds. I sure hope that they leave the tips of the climbing tendrils alone.

Then I brought in some more Natures Best Soil and built a hill for the "Marina di Chioggia" Winter Squash.

As you can see, the plants that I started from seed are doing really well. I decided to cover the hill with remay, just for a few weeks. It will keep the plants a bit warmer but more importantly it will give them protection from the birds. Once they have 4 or 5 of their true leaves out, I will feel better about removing the remay cloth.

After I finished working in the vegetable garden, I turned my attention to the mudroom bed. I don't have a "before" picture, but I can tell you it was a mess. It was overgrown with grass and Canadian thistle. I planned to get half of it weeded, but once I got going there was no stopping me! Actually, I just really wanted this off my mental "to-do" list. It looks so much better! Now we need to add a bunch of soil, especially to the back of the bed.

Right now the star of this bed is this salvia "La Trinidad Pink". We bought a small plant of it at Xera nursery last summer and it has quadrupled in size this year. It is getting just smothered in hot pink blooms, which the hummingbirds adore. And while I worked so hard outside, Padma supervised me from the mudroom bench indoors.