Plan B

It might be more appropriate to title this post "Plan Q" as I am sure we are well past our second option for the garden area and well onto our 17th or so.  If you recall (and hopefully you don't), we tried to put up fencing in the garden area last summer.  This did not end well.  The Mister and I went our separate ways; I don't think anyone spoke to anyone else for days and in the end, we took it all down anyway.  But, time heals all wounds and as it turns out, allows you to come up with much better plans.  We put in the asparagus bed earlier in the spring as well as the strawberry bed so we can get those plants growing this year and can enjoy the bounty next.  We have a temporary fence around the strawberries (hate to lose them all to the deer and rabbits) and we spent many days pondering what to do with my garden area as a whole.

We saw an arbor on sale at Menard's awhile back and brought it home and assembled it.  For several weeks it stood as a gallant sentry to an otherwise unblocked garden area.  We ordered pickets but then the weather got hot and we got busy working on the pasture and it wasn't until the last couple of days that we finally got busy putting up the front side of the picket fence. We won't get much more of it done this year, although I hope to get it painted and get the gate up, but it at least allows me to put some perennials in place this fall and it gives the garden area a slightly better appearance - sort of a step up from "weedy mess" and into "unfinished project" but we'll take the upgrade in status.

Meanwhile, The Mister planted a garden down by the old chicken coop this spring.  It was entirely on a whim.  Sort of a -  "I think I'll plant some potatoes.  Maybe some onions and corn, too."  He threw in sunflowers just because, I think.  And for all that lack of planning, it is actually doing better than mine ever did.  Of course, his has the occasional snake caught in the fencing, and recently some raccoons got clever and chomped a few corn stalks, but he has an amazing garden growing that delights us in so many ways.

His pumpkins are taking over the world as I write this, but I will set my envy aside as I know sweet corn will be ready in a couple weeks and I want to be on The Mister's good side when it's time to harvest that!!

The Mister will be the first to admit that he'll do things differently next year.  We have no further to look than to MY garden to know that each year brings improvements.  We do what we can with what we have to work with each year and we enjoy the ways we learn and grow with each passing season.  Nothing quite delights our souls like pulling potatoes for dinner right from the earth, or watching the bees pollinate the pumpkin patch, or even knowing that some rascally varmints were as impatient as we are to taste the sweet corn.  While we look ahead to next summer with eager anticipation (by then we'll have this done or that ready...) we also savor the bounty of this year, and this harvest.