June 23 Weekly Garden Update

I intended for last week’s garden update to show off the freshly weeded and then mulched garden.  But there was no garden update last week because the week was surprisingly busy, especially considering that I am supposed to be enjoying the relaxation that is summer.  At the start of last week, the garden looked like this:

Last weekend I declared that garden mulching season had arrived.   Before the mulch can be laid, the garden must be weeded one more time, so that was the chore for last week.  The weeding was completed on Wednesday and that afternoon, JT helped me load up the mulch and delivered the bags to the back yard. Then work demands and rain descended.  So the mulch sat on the lawn, forlorn and undistributed.  When I looked at the garden I swore that I could see all the weeds growing back.

I made another run at the weeds on Sunday.  Then I put down the newspapers and mulch that is my idiot-proof method of water-saving weed control.   Now things look ordered and lovely and just the way I like my garden to be.

Tomatoes and dahlias have been caged and now have support for the growing still-to-come.  

There is plenty of room for the new extra-long hose pipe and worn sprinkler to be moved around to water without disturbing the plants.

There is a spot raked and ready for me to plant the last of my zinnia beds.  There will be some abundant cut flower bouquets at my house later this summer.

I unearthed my turtle garden marker, a metal piece picked up at an antique shop in Cape Cod a few years back.

The 2016 garden is a little smaller than in previous years but no less lovely.  Now that the mulch is set down, my daily walk to the garden will be less a reminder of chores to be completed and instead a chance to admire the fruits and flowers of hard work.