The Garden

A while back Ray built a 4x12 foot raised garden bed for me. I filled it with a mix of topsoil, manure compost and peat moss. So far I haven't been able to plant much but there are a few tomato plants, some green beans and of course Destiny's sunflowers. For the first month the tomato plants just sat there and shivered in the cold and damp. Then suddenly at the beginning of June the weather decided to go from below normal to way above normal. The tomatoes are off and running. Not that I'm a big tomato fan, but I do like some on a sandwich now and then and Ray loves them. With the price of them in the store, and the salmonella scare, I can't see paying for the anemic looking ones the store offers.

We also discovered while we were clearing some of the weeds and brush that there was a tire flower bed out by the road. That now has geraniums, vinca and marigolds in it. We'll see if it survives the deer, although I haven't really seen many in our yard after the first couple weeks we were here. I guess they have figured out the place is occupied again.

We've come to the end of our money so any construction projects are on an as you go basis. Right now Ray is working on getting our fleet of lawn mowers working. We brought down with us the old green Bowen, and the trusty old Sears hand mower Ray bought in 1979 that still works like a champ. Then Jim mentioned to Ray he knew a guy with a larger riding mower for sale. We went to look, the guy said Ray could have both the 36 inch and the 30 inch for $20. Heck, who can turn down a deal like that? He threw in an extra engine he had laying around for extra measure. So now Ray has gotten new tires on the Bowen and got it back to electric start with a key again, and has the 30 inch Murray going. He's started working on the 36 inch Murray, although since it's just the two of us we only really need 2 of the riders working.