In the May Garden

garden shed we started building last summer

We have had a wet and cool spring in southeast Louisiana. The ground was soggy so long that I couldn't weed or add compost as I had planned, but now I am catching up. Our little acre of land requires a lot more work than one might imagine. We have plans for a little pond surrounded by islands of native shrubs and flowers on the south side of our property, we just finished building and painting a garden shed, we have planted more citrus trees, and we sprouted more tomatoes than we had room in our big garden--sixty or so heirloom tomato plants altogether (German Johnson, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Black Krim). In order to get all those tomato plants in the ground, we planted tomatoes in beds in which I had planned to plant flowers, such as the circular bed I tilled and composted around our largest fig tree (planted two years ago, so still a young tree). We also planted tomatoes in an old compost pile, having removed most of the uncomposted vegetation to another area.

Many flower seeds I planted in the early spring didn't sprout, as we had too much rain. I had to reseed, and those seeds have sprouted and are growing. Today I planted more zinnia seeds, and if we have a sunny weekend, I'll be adding compost to many of my flower and herb beds and building up a bed that I have expanded near our patio. One of the photos below is of pine cones that I piled around our crepe myrtle trees. Our cats were sharpening their claws on the trunks of both trees, though one tree was bearing the brunt of the scratching. We were afraid that the cats might girdle the trees, so I placed pine cones at the base of both of the trees near our patio to discourage the cats. This seems to have worked. However, I noticed recent cat scratches on our newly painted garden shed, on the door frame!

Gardening is my refuge from the insanity of American politics and the madness of the world.

Looking for love (on a sage flower)

very tiny pollinator on a dill flower

tomatoes planted around fig tree

California poppies and basil

pine cones around crepe myrtle trunk

tomatoes in the big garden