A teaser while we garden...

We had a big trip to Alden Lane Nursery yesterday. It was hot in Livermore, CA, which reminded me remarkably of Amarillo, TX with its flat, wide streets. The nursery was great, although probably pretty pricey as compared to other stores. We attended a class and learned a lot about garden pests. More on that later.

While we were at the nursery, we considered giving up on our squash. After 4 weeks and no sign of them, as well as the large holes we'd found in our garden just after planting which seemed to be evidence that squirrels had made away with our seeds, we were losing hope. We were completely shocked to find when we returned home that the squash (4 of them, as if they are conspiring with one another) had stuck their heads up through the soil. A few of them had apparently done this after significant effort, literally moving earth out of their way and shooting up an inch on the first day.



One thing we'd been wanting for a while was a big half wine barrel for tomatoes and herbs. We got one, but not without significant damage to our car. More on that later.



We have a long day of work ahead to put in 2 additional raised beds. We'll be planting cucumbers, nasturtiums (edible flowers), some tomato seeds we received at Christmas, possibly potatoes, and eventually some lettuces. We also have some new decorative plants to fill in the area in front of our house, and some flowers that we learned will attract good pests in our talk tomorrow. More later (if we can move after all the work ahead...)