Early Spring activities

 You know, I thought I posted a few times last year...but they aren't here. Huh...

Anyway, spring has sprung at the Sacred Hart Suburban Animal Sanctuary and "Farm."   The phlox, Queen of the Nigth tulips, and one or two lonely daffodils bloomed and have faded, but just in time for the irises (pictured).

We have another batch of kittens born April 11ish and April 17.  We've seen three little black or dark grey ones a few days ago, but not since. Mamas Marbles and Patches are coparenting and have moved them twice but still in our yard.

We also had a litter of raccoons, which are just so stinkin' cute.  Mama Ricki still comes around for food, but I don't know where she moved them.

I'll post my 'done' list but I've spent most of my time since April-ish weeding. The first thing to come up in the spring is typically NOT anything I planted, but weeds. All those things that I need to evict from the beds.  So I spend 15 minutes a day, starting in the front and gradually move around the house. I am about halfway done now.

It is so interesting to see the diversity. There was a huge batch of chickweed, which looked like it would be easy to pull, but was not. Some plants spread out and so their roots are shallow; once you find the correct root, you can clear a whole bunch all at once. Of course some spread out and that root ISN'T that shallow.  Some have thick stems with sharp thingies but if you hold them the right way, even barehanded and pull, they come out really easily. Then others have thick steps with sharp thingies and the only right way to hold them is with gloves, and they are not going to come out easily.  (My favorites are the ones with sharp thingies ON their roots.)    Some are even super useful if you get them harvested at the right time. I did get the dandelions to make wine with. I did not get the purple dead nettle in time.  

So, what I have now is a mental library of various things growing where they're not allowed, and a repertoire of how to evict them.  I usually explain that they can have the whole yard, just stay out of the flower/vegetable beds.  

There's probably some deeper wisdom about all that. I invite you to find it :)

Here's what's happened so far. It took so much longer than it appears in writing... but also never takes as long as I think it will:

• 24 red onions planted Easter weekend (harvest around July 13)
• May 9
• red and white petunias around border of the front flower bed
• Marigolds around onions bed
• Red salvia of some kind in front bed near hummingbird feeder
• May 10
• Chadwick plant sale: bought and planted parsley, basil, marjoram, rosemary, and chamomile 
• All sorts of bird feeder maintenance
• Weeded second vegetable garden bed
• May 11 (Mother's Day)
• Made a hanging planter for mom (I didn't like any of the premade ones)
• May 12
• Jim finished second veggie garden bed for me, started on third
• planted 4 bell peppers and 4 'mystery tomatoes'.  
• planted marigolds (Need more marigolds)
• More birdfeeder stuff. All the hummingbird feeders are up (as of 5/11 I think). more regular bird feeders to get sorted, and probably need two more for the front.

Weekend? More like GREENKend....

Okay, not funny.

This is, however THE weekend of gardening. If Spring/Beltane/Summer had a "Black Friday" weekend, this would be it.

Today, I went to Chadwick Arboretum's Plant Sale and Auction.  I had heard about this, but last year was the first year I went, with the Lovely and Talented Misty. Misty is so lovely and talented, she now as a job, so I went by myself.  I arrived at OSU, kicking myself for not making a List to Be Adhered To (as to avoid overspending), and resolved to be Sensible and not get more than the cart would allow.

The carts hold quite a lot.

I meandered around. I'm never sure what to get, even if I know what I'm looking for.  I mean, I want a 'tomato' but there's 87 million varieties, and each booth has overlapping types and they're organic and stuff and....*sigh*  I let intuition guide me, usually.  They have lots of good stuff, so if you're available Saturday you should check it out.

I probably got there at 8:30 and was home by 10, with:

Flowers:  Nasturtium, Brutus Hosta ("created" there at OSU, hence the name), blue salvia, pink salvia, and goldenrod for the butterfly garden. I got something else for that garden, but it didn't have a tag, and I couldn't remember where I got it.  Sadly, that did not mean I got it for free and since at the time I didn't know what it was or where it belonged, back it went.

Herbs:  Marjoram, oregano, lavendar, basil, parsley, lemon grass, and rosemary

Vegetables:  2 zucchini, 2 pickling cucumbers, lunchbox peppers, 2 yankee bell peppers, 2 amish paste tomatoes, 2 some other slicing tomato (heirloom!), 1 black cherry tomato.

You'd think I'd be done, but tomorrow is the Gahanna Herb Show.  I'll be meeting Beth, Misty, maybe Julie and Teresa for breakfast before we descend upon it.  I really don't have much to get after today, but I liked their pole beans from last year (although I have seeds I got last year too), and I'm sure I can find something.

The seeds I sprouted are doing okay. I forgot to bring them in one night, so I'm not sure how they're going to do.  I might want to replace them with actual plantlings, but we'll see.  I do need to replace some strawberry plants. I wish I had seen that before this morning; they had some there.

I came home and had second breakfast, and then after cleaning up from that, I pulled weeds in the raised beds to get them ready.  Almost every bed has had it's spring weeding, except the moon garden, and that's almost done.  I just don't know what belongs there and what doesn't.  Seamus will have to do that, and then roto-till the beds.  I may want to turn the compost and see if I get some good stuff to roto-till in there.

Pictures forthcoming.

As I look at my big box of green-kins, I remember last year how excited I was for the summer growing season to come, and the plans I had...and then how that was completely kicked to the curb by random mystery illness....it's hard to raise that level of hope again, but such is the lingering emotional challenge of the past year.  I almost didn't do any gardening at all this year, but that would be to admit defeat and while I don't always feel like it, I follow the maxim sometimes of "Fake it, 'til you make it." So much doesn't seem real, like it happened to someone else....but not all.

So I plant.  The Earth heals.

aaaaand....DONE!

Finally!

I had been trying to wait until we had our first fire so we could use the ashes in the Three Sister's Garden, however that was just taking way too long.  So this morning while Jim watered the rest, I raked the dirt where the squirrels and robins had been all in it, and then planted eight kernels of Peaches and Cream sweet corn.  I put a stake near each one so we'd know where they were.  With that everything is done.

As of now, then, everything that was on that list is planted except the moonflowers and calendula.  It looks thusly:

To the very far left are the strawberries, which I have fertilizer and dirt for.  They've already started to produce...over achievers!  To their right I have sweet banana peppers (Jim's request) and green bell peppers, and a whole lot of space.  Not sure what to do with all that, but something will go there.  The middle bed has six remaining of eight pickling cucumbers, and then two zucchini plants.  It very well may also have some space remaining, even though I know how much both of those plants branch out.  On the right side is the tomatoes, where I have two Prudens beefsteaks, two Amish Pastes, and one Black Cherry...because who doesn't want black cherry tomatoes!  I also put the garlic and chives in that one.

That leaves the new bed, which is the Three Sister's bed.  Hopefully, Elsie the Owl will keep the squirrels and birds away from the corn kernels which will hopefully sprout.  The suggestion we got here I just realized I totally did not follow, planting in rows rather than in a circle.  I think I thought each kernal got it's own mound.  Oops.  But, the timing of the things I plan on following so there's that....

Next, I decided to do something with the corn dollies I had made last year and the year before.  I hadn't burned the oldest one yet, so decided they should both go out.  I picked some of the flowers in the yard, and added them, and each one got affixed to a post, one in the Three Sister's garden, and the other in the tomato bed.

I already got a start on this year's with some corn we had on Memorial Day.  Even if we don't get any ears in the ones we planted, maybe we will at least get some stalks so we can make them from our own yard.

And, just for fun, here's a picture of the Butterfly Garden:

The milkweed from last year seems to have taken off (and indeed, can be found in various other places in my yard).  I also planted the tangerine sage there, but all the pretty red blooms fell off, so hopefully more will come back.  I also put the dill there, since some caterpillars like that.

Most of the annual herbs went into containers on the patio, but I decided to try the perennials in the yard.  In the flower garden around the deck I put the chamomile, lavender, and one variety of sage., and then in the matching Garden-To-Be-Named-Later in the other corner, I put the common sage.

I still have more to do, but it's very nice. We have lots of birds at the feeder, and two squirrels (at least).  The birds sing all day and pretty soon the 17-year cicadas will bust out.  It feels very much like being out in the country, even though we are basically in the land of suburban sprawl.  It's actually fairly peaceful, and I can't wait until the deck is done and I can sit there and just observe all the life out there.

Changes and Stuff

So, as you can see, I have changed the name of the blog back to it's original.  We are every so slowly adjusting to our new normal, but I believe there isn't a day that goes by that we aren't laughing or crying (or sometimes both) over something that reminds us of Janet.

This week everyone and their brother appears to have their plant sales.  I went to Chadwick Arboretum's's plant sale/fundraiser on Friday at 8am, meeting my friend, Misty, and her adorable son, Liam.  We went to Tee-Jaye's afterward.  Then I got up early this morning and met another friend, Beth, at Creekside Cafe in Gahanna, and went to the Gahanna Herb Day after that.  Want to see a list of what I bought?

There's a plethora of stuff on there...herbs, flowers, heirloom veggies. I went without a list, and still really didn't either forget anything OR get any extra stuff I didn't intend to get.

(As an aside, I am totally going to hire Misty and Beth to be my gardeners when I win the Powerball!)

The book that's in is a "gardening journal" I bought in 2010.  It's a blank book, that isn't actually completely blank.  But  I think that's like page two.  As you can see, I am also jotting down where things go, and not everything has a home yet.  So, I sketched out the backyard so we can start thinking about it, thusly...

Good thing we didn't waste money on art school!
Totally not to any kind of logical scale.

That is as you stand on the deck looking out towards the back.  I have a good sense of where the annual herbs should go, in pots on the deck.  Everything else is up in the air, as I'm thinking of moving perennial herbs to the flower bed around the deck...my HOPE is they can be sort of shaded by the flowers that are there while they get established, and over the winter, and then been fairly self-sufficient after that.  The perennials don't seem to do really well over the winter in the containers.

It was threatening rain, so I didn't do much more before work.  I pulled some thyme that overwintered to start drying some more.  I love the way my hands smell after I do that!  Tomorrow morning I will  be all about the weeding and getting of the things ready.  Monday, Jim doesn't work, so that will likely be when the heavier work is getting done.  He's going to make me at least one new bed, maybe two to replace the pallets (to the right of the oak, and then above that one).

I have filled the hummingbird feeders, and one of the plants is a hummingbird attractant, so we shall wait.  I also have a way longer tale to tell you about our epic battle between a hawk and some squirrels, but that will have to wait for another time.

And there we have it.

On June 11, I had started a new post entitled "Managing the Inevitable."  In it, I updated Janet's recent and abrupt change and decline in Alzheimer's symptoms. She had become combative, would refuse food and medicine (but could usually be cajoled into them).  She was packing her stuff in a very haphazard disorganized fashion because her nephew (she believed) was coming to take her to her sister's.

We got emergency nursing home placement.  She got sick.  She went to the ER, then ICU.  She recovered some.  We placed her in our first choice nursing home.  The first night she fell trying to get out of bed.  That afternoon she was gone.  June 29, 2015.  I hadn't yet adjusted to her being across town, but at least then I could check in and see her.  Now I can't even do that.

And that's nothing compared to my husband and his sister's pain.

I mentioned before, Alzheimer's is more than just memory loss.  It attacks all parts of the brain; even those parts that are responsible for things like being hungry and breathing and the like.

But...if I am at least grateful for two things.

1.She had a good visit with her son and daughter and granddaughter the day before.  She knew who they were.

2.  She did not decline further.  She will not be in that line of people at the nursing home, staring off into space, not knowing where they are, who they are.  Alzheimer's didn't beat her after all.

The last few weeks...months, really... have been a blur.  But life requires we move on, as it keeps happening regardless.  I see events happening that I may have once been invited to, but care-giving-related invitation declines have seen me fall off many 'must invite' lists.  I need to get back to social life.

AND, back to my garden, which actually has been happening in the midst of all the other.  I could read back to see what I've already talked about, but instead I'll just state where we are.  Today Jim and I staked the tomatoes and peppers.  The tomatoes had outgrown the little thingies I had, so we got proper stakes for them.  The rain has left them loaded with green fruit, so hopefully the dry and heat of this coming week will start the ripening process.  there are blossoms on the peppers, too.  I normally don't stake them, but rain keeps beating them down.

The zucchini and squash are doing .... so-so.  I've gotten two zucchinis and one squash off two plants of each.  It looks the rain just smashed the plants completely, so we'll see what the dry spell does.

I think I am going to have to give up on broccoli.  I never get the big bunches I see in stores, and it bolts really quickly.  The Brussel sprouts are starting to form though.  They seem to take forever, though, so I may want to rethink them both in favor of something that produces well and doesn't take so long.

I did finally plant beans and they have sprouted up nicely.  Allegedly there is no trellising required for these (but we shall keep an eye on that).

Strawberries and raspberries are sort of mediocre this year, but the apple tree is LOADED.  We don't spray so they aren't "pretty" but they are definitely bigger this year than last, and more plentiful.  One of these years we will look at the 'organic apple growing' sites and figure out what we're doing.  Jim also finally planted our grape vine, so hopefully it's not too late for the plant to survive, even if we don't get grapes this year.

Right now the bumper crop is cucumbers, which are following the 'three years to success' model that almost everything else has.  Of course, I was growing them for Janet, who LOVED them.  I see relish in my future.

Also in addition to the tomato stakes on our trip to Lowe's, we got birdseed.  I need to fill the birdfeeder (edit: done) and refill the hummingbird feeders.  Janet was insistent about those.

Herbs are drying in the window, but I need to get those taken down and stored so I can hang more.

The cicadas are singing, signifying for me the beginning of Lughnasadh, and now the hope for having things to can and preserve.  While my hope is only for hobby's sake, it's a small snippet of how people must have felt this time of year.  I know my garden this year isn't going to do much (survival on apples, tomatoes, and cucumbers would not be pleasant!) so already we are planning for next year.  The last remaining pallets will be replaced with actual raised beds, and maybe one more.  I'm also not using straw as a mulch again.  It may keep weeds down, but those that do land get hopelessly tangled with the straw.  But, those are all things for future posts.

Spring Sprang

A while back actually, and I'm woefully behind.

Alzheimer's a terrible, terrible disease.  I know all lingering lengthy diseases are, and most people know that.  Although they'll say "yeah, my mom forgets a lot too."  Or worse, make a joke about how their forgetfulness is early-onset.  Um...no.  No, it's not.  And it isn't funny.  It's more than just forgetfulness.  It's the complete personality transference that takes place from, let's say, a sweet, funny, kind woman to ... well, someone who isn't that.  And who realizes that it's happening, and can't do anything about it.

The latest memory that keeps recirculating is about her father and hummingbird feeders.  She said he would string them along a line from the back of their house out to "that tree."  They have to have multiple feeders because they are "mean little things."  She's not wrong.  They are very territorial.  In February then, I took her to Anderson's and she picked out two more hummingbird feeders.  We put them up this weekend...well, I did.  I showed her a few times where they are and heard the story again and again.  Two are in the flower garden around the deck, and one is hanging in the birch tree.

Planting progresses as we try and time things with the weather.  I bought a grapevine, dill, and parsley from the botany class at school.  We got broccoli and brussel sprouts and onions, and then...well, you know, kinda waited.  Meanwhile life continued.  Then this past weekend "Holy crap, we have to plant that stuff!"

I did try the whole "use water jugs as mini greenhouses" as went around Facebook a while back. While I did get a late start I can now definitively say that it did not work.  Or maybe it did. I'll just keep them together until I don't I guess, just to see if they ever take root.  It could have just been old seeds, I suppose.  I planted broccoli, onions, and tomatoes.  I wrote on the jug, but then rain, snow, and sun have successfully removed the labels so I have no idea what is in what.

We now have the onions in one of the whiskey half-barrels. Dill and parsley are in one pot and going to be transferred to the pollinator garden once we have that earth turned.  Lettuce and spinach seeds are in and hopefully growing under ground because they aren't sprouting yet.  (I planted them a couple of weeks ago).  The strawberries are full of pink blooms and already some little berries are visible.  The apple tree has teeny little apples on it even!  I planted the Brussel sprouts and broccoli yesterday.  This year I got straw (from mom and dad's Thanksgiving yard decorations), and have used that for mulch.  I will add that to the other beds too, and then the rest goes in the compost.

Bolting for Solstice

From Wikipedia:

Bolting is when agricultural and horticultural crops prematurely produce a flowering stem (or stems) before the crop is harvested, in a natural attempt to produce seeds and hence reproduce. These flowering stems are usually vigorous extensions of existing leaf-bearing stems, and in order to produce them, a plant diverts resources away from producing the edible parts such as leaves or roots, resulting in a poor quality harvest from the grower's point of view. Plants that have produced flowering stems in this way are said to have bolted.



From me: 

Bolting is when I realize I am not getting fresh broccoli this season.

This past few weeks I have learned about bolting.  Both my spinach and my broccoli did so.  I managed to salvage enough spinach leaves to get barely two servings for Janet and I.  Despite warnings that the leaves would be tough, they were fine.  I credit the healing power of bacon grease.  Bacon fixes all things.  That and a little lemon juice, then crumble the bacon used to get the grease from, ta da! Delish.

I am not so lucky with the broccoli.  I cut everything off in the empty hope that maybe it will sprout anew.  
My head lettuce also liquified from the insides out.

For those keeping score that's a yield of 2 servings of spinach out of six plants, no broccoli out of six and no head lettuce out of six. 

Ah well. 

The strawberries however were going like gangbusters, until yesterday.  We finally have raspberries on the plants, and tiny little apples.  I didn't think we'd get any apples, as I thought the frost killed all the blossoms.  

This past weekend we finally finished planting everything we have to plant.  After I pulled the spinach and slimy lettuce, there was room to plant the tomatoes and bell peppers.  I bought a yellow squash and a zucchini so I will at least get three of one or the other.  (For those who didn't watch the video, I lost track of which plant was what, so I have no idea whether I've already planted two zucchinis or two squashes).  The beans are looking good so I put up the twine scaffolding I had last year.  Janet came out and turned over the onion leaves so they would bulb.  

The herb pots have expanded.  In the big one I put basil, oregano, and parsley, and then the smaller ones have rosemary, lavender, and a LOT of sweet woodruff.  I got one plant from a friend and then bought what ended up being six more at Dill's. They are small enough that I can bring them inside over the winter, but I do want to get another large planter.  While I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all the woodruff, there was one benefit.  When it rained a little bit ago and I went outside, the scent was AMAZING.

Really, the only thing left is finding some cucumbers we can make pickles out of, and then maybe some more beans.  We have one more pallet and some dirt, so we shall be good.

Last night we opened the deck in style with an impromptu cookout.  Three friends came over spur of the moment.  Janet made lemonade, showing me how to do it, and she ate with us.  The lights are on the canopy, torches were filled and lit, and it was basically THE perfect evening.  The only thing that would have been better would have been the fire lit, but I need to fix up the firepit.  That is the plan for this evening. Maybe once that is all done we'll take another video tour so you can see how stuff has changed.

In other news, Janet bought an owl.  Not a real one, one of the garden ones used to deter pests.  She said "Owls are good people," and since it's both her money and something with which I totally agree, I didn't argue.  She named it Elsie after her best friend.  Elsie was also an asshole, I hear.  Right now the owl is sitting inside as we decide what to do with her.  She continues to freak us out, as she looks like a cat...or...something....

We have reached the point in this odyssey where outside assistance with her is necessary.  We have someone coming for an assessment in July.  While it will be nice for help, this is just an unpleasant reminder that things are not going to get better.  Ever.  And that is heartbreaking.

But....The garden still grows, and I still get stories, and help, and occasionally little gems of wisdom. When she told me about the owl she tried to keep as a pet, I showed her my shelf of owl figurines, and that made her smile. 

Solstice is in a few days and I will be at festival.  Hopefully everyone will take care of the garden while I'm gone.  May the blessings of the shining sun be upon you and yours!

Video tour!

Hopefully!  I'm experimenting with this.  I thought, instead of taking a bunch of pictures...why not video?  So let's see if this works:

I did harvest the broccoli.  The stuff that had NOT gone to seed is about worth MAYBE one salad topping's worth of broccoli, but if I'm right (which I am probably not) there will be more coming.

Spring around the corner

It doesn't seem like it though.  I just shoveled the driveway for the third time (total of four, Jim did one).

However, my friend Beth posted a picture of her hand lifting dirt out of a bag to be placed into seed pots, and it looked good.  Really, really good.  A few facebook messages later and I was on my way to her house after work in order to pick up her extra.  We talked gardening for a bit, and she gave me some hints and tips.  She saved her own seeds last year, and I think I might give it a try this year.  We'll be exchanging seedlings if they're successful and we have too many, and also the fruits of our labor (literally!).  This is how you do it people.  We only survive if we cooperate!

As I drove home in the snow, I felt better.  I was practically giddy when I got home.  I had dirt and I wasn't afraid to use it!  After shoveling snow and some coffee, I have liberated some clay pots from the deck, and they are now sitting on the dining room table, melting a bit.  Once it gets melted, I plan to dump it outside, and then get started.  There's a corner of the dining room where a TV tray (or two) can be set up and they can sit there.  It's a bit cool, but they can also get a lot of sunshine there.

Despite my hatred of shoveling, I have come to love winter.  Truly proper winter, with snow.  Not the endless bare and dry and bleak, or worse, ice upon ice.  Winter is hues of blue to me: The bright blue of a frigid clear sky; the deep blue of cloudless night with icy stars; the barely-there blue of piles of snow, which deepens as the sun sets, and fades as it rises.

Once inside, the smell of the jambalaya that had been simmering in the crock pot all morning (with my own tomatoes!), but I dutifully went to get the pots from under the table outside.  Some of them were frozen together and some had snow and ice inside that was not going to just come right out. They are currently thawing on the dining room table, as I said.  I am thinking of starting cucumbers, zucchini, and squash.  I will have to see what packets of seeds are still left.

I thought I'd also share pictures of the Back Forty Feet:

Ironically, this was taken I think two days after my declaration of an early Imbolc.  Mother Nature has a wonderful sense of humor.  I had planned to get close-ups, but changed my mind.  There are actually five beds in the shot.  There's a long pallet that's the left-most rectangle, which has strawberries which, last I could see, still had green leaves on them.  Directly next to that (I guess at kind of a downward angle) is a regular square pallet.  Last year it had two tomato plants and some muskmelon, that was gifted to me.  The muskmelon blossomed but no fruit.  The tomatoes did well.  This year it has my lettuce seeds.  Another gardener friend was doubtful that they'd sprout, since they were only covered with dirt, and now snow.  But, I figure they managed to survive growing kind of like that for millennia before we came along, so we'll just wait and see.

Above those (toward the back of the yard) are the three built beds. The farthest one in the back was the first one. Last year it had potatoes and onions, and then lettuce after that.  The lower left one was tomatoes and bell peppers and the one to the right had beans, zucchini, squash, and failed cucumbers.  They grew and vined and blossomed, but no fruit.

In the back corner are the raspberries.  Yes, you can also see the compost bin I still haven't quite figured out, and then the wheelbarrow that "someone" left out.  It has the remains of our topsoil from last year in it.  You can also see our fire pit and altar/bench/table (it serves many purposes).

This be the small herb portion on the deck.  Dead basil, and possibly not-so-dead rosemary and lavender. The two smaller pots are the ones I got to put parsley and dill in for the caterpillers I found.  Next year, we have plans for a butterfly garden, and the parsley and dill will go in there..

Not seen on your tour here:  apple tree that I was told wouldn't produce apples, but happily does, and the totally out of control mint plant.

Now I am eating the aforementioned jambalaya (which could be spicier), the spouse is home, the electric fireplace is on and I'm getting ready for the next week at school.  More snow is being called for

To Water or Not To Water

This is the annoying thing.  The weather forecasters say "Oh, it's going to rain!"  So I wait...and wait...and wait...nope. No rain.  Now it's dark and late and I'm tired and don't want to haul the hose around.

I'm not one of those who jumps on forecasters for every erroneous forecast.  If people were honest, they'd realize that they are fairly accurate.  And I'm pretty sure it rained somewhere in the viewing area even if it wasn't over my back 40 feet.  Either way, there was no watering from me today, and I hope there's rain tonight or tomorrow.  I have this sneaking suspicion that if I water, it will rain.  I don't think that's a bad thing.  The beds seem to be draining well, so I am not worried about flooding.

There is of course some larger lesson here, about doing what one should do regardless of the promise of a gift from the heavens.  People who pray for work but don't put in applications would seem to be an analogy. So in the gardening-as-life-lesson realm, point taken.  Procrastinating because something might happen to make the task unnecessary or easier, when in actually it's just getting harder by waiting is a long standing failing of mine.  Now I get it from the garden too.  One day, that lesson will take.  But not today obvious.  Maybe tomorrow.

I was gifted with some new tomato plants to replace the dying ones, and then also some cabbage and muskmelon.  I will need to probably finish the pallets, throw some dirt in them and see what happens.  Everything that isn't the tomatoes seems to be doing well, and I've gotten about four to eight raspberries every morning, although the promise of more to come.  Herbs are drying; the mint seems to have gone faster, so I can take that off, store it somehow, and then hang more.

And water tomorrow....