Well, at 5:13AM this morning it was the Summer Solstice. I was up and bound and determined I would be out in the New Herb garden by 6AM. I really wanted to finish Row 1 before the rain came in on Tuesday night.
I started where I left off, pulling roots of the tall grass that had been at the end of the row. I filled this sled with those fat white roots.
This was the area I was working on. I got the rest of the walkway cleaned out and half of Row 2 finished. It took about 2 hours.
Next I amended the soil with the 2021 New Herb garden mix I custom made for this garden. Then I laid out the new beds and planted. New plants from my seedlings:
2 pyrethrum
3 parsley
2 Joe Pye weed
My son helped me by bringing me the mulch materials. I started at the west end and worked my way down. He brought a couple wheelbarrows of bark mulch to put down where I’d finished working. if it’s not raining on Wednesday I hope he will finish this walkway.
The row from the west end:
wormwood
honesty
pyrethrum
woad
astragalus
elecampane
butterflyweed
parsley
Roman wormwood
Joe Pye weed
I finished the row at 1PM and still had hay mulch left for the next row. The next load of mulch will be delivered Wednesday afternoon. I cleaned up and was pretty wiped out after 7 hours. I’d had a short break when a friend stopped by and wanted to tour the gardens and woodshed addition.
3rd Fence garden - 1st daisy, a chrysanthemum daisy just opening
Just outside the garden, by the driveway, the 1st two black-eyed susans had opened. This is one of my favorite summer flowers.
In one of the New Herb garden walkways, a volunteer borage had started to flower.
In the half of Row 2 that I had cleared, the blue flax flowers were open.
On Wednesday my backup helper is coming and if it’s not raining, we will tackle the weeding of Row 2 and half of Row 3. If it’s raining, I plan to work in the cellar getting the rags sorted and put away and cleaning out more of the freezer room. Tom is back from vacation and may be here in the morning.