Beginning the Garden Set-up

I started the day working up at the house. For weeks, I have been meaning to pull out my sweet pea tower and cover it with a fine netting. The plants were having trouble grabbing the tower because it is very open and doesn't have a lot of points on it with which the tendrils can grab hold. As you can see, I waited so long that the sweet pea plants just started climbing up on each other or were flopped on the ground. This morning I took some green twine and pulled them up toward the tower. They should straighten out in a few days and look pretty good. I am so please how they are growing this year. I has literally been over a decade since I have successfully grown sweet peas. Each year in the past, the aphids attacked them and all of the plants died. For whatever reason, I don't have any aphid problems up here and they are growing great.

I also have my first open bloom today. It's a lovely red, but I have to admit I am a bit confused. When I bought my two 6-packs of sweet pea plants at Down to Earth I clearly remember buying 2 different colors. I know without a doubt one of the colors was maroon. I think the other color was pink or lilac. But I know I didn't buy any red plants. So this lovely first bloom is a surprise to say the least.

This one looks like it could be maroon when it fully opens.

After I finished my sweet pea project I transplanted all of my "Minnesota Miget" melons. I am planning on eventually planting these down in the big garden. But it will be a few weeks before it is logistically possible to do that. They were outgrowing the small cells that the seed was first planted in, so I moved them all to roomier quarters.

They are really looking good. All 12 plants are healthy and are just beginning to unfurl their first true leaf. It was the prefect time to transplant them.

Once that project was complete I headed down to the big garden. It had been two days since the final tilling and the soil had dried out nicely. It was time to start laying out the rows and stakes. I began raking the soil as smooth as I could and laid out 2 rows for bush beans and 5 rows for flowers. Then I set the stakes for the first row of dahlias. There is still a lot more to do but it feels good to have started the process.