On Friday night, Anne and I headed over to Mamie's to pick up our first canine farmhand, Lily. Originally I was supposed to get her on Saturday, but we made it north in time to get her on Friday night. She's a lovely, sweet, goofy, smart dog, and I've thoroughly enjoyed my first 72 hours with her. Her dog cousins don't really know what to make of her yet. Winston thinks that she smells amazing, but seems to think she's too small to play with. Danish wasn't particularly interested in her at all, and Stoney didn't want to be bothered by a puppy. She loved all of them, and I'm sure they'll be more interested in playing with her once she's more their size. 
On Saturday, Anne, Lily and I had a quick visit at my parents' with the chicks, who are noticeably larger than they were last week. Taperman and I took the bravest girl outside for her first exposure to the great outdoors. I think she enjoyed it. It's kind of hard to tell with chickens.
On Sunday, we got back to farming. We made our weekly trip to Skillins to get flowers for the outside border of the garden and straw for mulching. Anne is a terrible enabler, so I left Skillins with snapdragons, cosmos, sweet peas, morning glories, cleome, lupine, columbine, chamomile, a pale green pesto basil, a poblano pepper, and white eggplants. Clearly, we had a lot of planting to do. Lily was an adorable distraction, so it took us a while on Sunday afternoon to get everything in the ground. Anne and Mike also did serious battle with what can only be described as a big ass rock (see below. Anne was not successful in moving the rock. But Mike prevailed, and is now boasting about his strong runner arms). In addition to the plants, we also planted seeds for a bee attracting mix of annuals and perennials. Hopefully by later this summer, we'll have a thick floral border around the fence. 
Most of my plants and seedlings are looking good. I did learn the consequences of failing to harden off your seedlings, though. The marigolds and zinnias got terribly sunburned, as you can kind of see below. Poor little guys. The tomatoes and peppers don't seem to have suffered as much, though. I did drive them all across new england with the windows open before I planted them, so maybe my non-traditional hardening off gave them a bit of a buffer.
The zinnias and marigolds that didn't look super dead made it into the garden, and I'm hoping that they'll perk up. Mike asked me if this is something that plants come back from, and I'm honestly not sure how they would. But I'm not giving up on them until they look unequivocally dead, so we'll see.
On Monday evening, Lily and I planted 20 hills of squash, on the hill behind the vegetable garden. I know that Mike loves me because he rototilled the whole area (again, this is on a hill, so he really loves me), and made hills of aged manure for the squash while I was picking up Lily on Saturday. I planted 3 hills each of Lumina pumpkins, Rouge vif d'Tempes pumpkins, and Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash. Spaghetti squash and sweet dumpling squash got 4 hills each because I love those kinds the best, and candy roaster squash got two hills because I ordered it because of the name and then later read in my squash book that it's not a remarkably tasty variety. I only planted one hill of nutty delica squash, even though I love that variety quite a bit, because I kept losing track of which varieties I had already planted, and got to the last hill before realizing I had missed one. And there is no backtracking in farming.
On Sunday, we got back to farming. We made our weekly trip to Skillins to get flowers for the outside border of the garden and straw for mulching. Anne is a terrible enabler, so I left Skillins with snapdragons, cosmos, sweet peas, morning glories, cleome, lupine, columbine, chamomile, a pale green pesto basil, a poblano pepper, and white eggplants. Clearly, we had a lot of planting to do. Lily was an adorable distraction, so it took us a while on Sunday afternoon to get everything in the ground. Anne and Mike also did serious battle with what can only be described as a big ass rock (see below. Anne was not successful in moving the rock. But Mike prevailed, and is now boasting about his strong runner arms). In addition to the plants, we also planted seeds for a bee attracting mix of annuals and perennials. Hopefully by later this summer, we'll have a thick floral border around the fence. Most of my plants and seedlings are looking good. I did learn the consequences of failing to harden off your seedlings, though. The marigolds and zinnias got terribly sunburned, as you can kind of see below. Poor little guys. The tomatoes and peppers don't seem to have suffered as much, though. I did drive them all across new england with the windows open before I planted them, so maybe my non-traditional hardening off gave them a bit of a buffer.The zinnias and marigolds that didn't look super dead made it into the garden, and I'm hoping that they'll perk up. Mike asked me if this is something that plants come back from, and I'm honestly not sure how they would. But I'm not giving up on them until they look unequivocally dead, so we'll see. On Monday evening, Lily and I planted 20 hills of squash, on the hill behind the vegetable garden. I know that Mike loves me because he rototilled the whole area (again, this is on a hill, so he really loves me), and made hills of aged manure for the squash while I was picking up Lily on Saturday. I planted 3 hills each of Lumina pumpkins, Rouge vif d'Tempes pumpkins, and Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash. Spaghetti squash and sweet dumpling squash got 4 hills each because I love those kinds the best, and candy roaster squash got two hills because I ordered it because of the name and then later read in my squash book that it's not a remarkably tasty variety. I only planted one hill of nutty delica squash, even though I love that variety quite a bit, because I kept losing track of which varieties I had already planted, and got to the last hill before realizing I had missed one. And there is no backtracking in farming.
I was worried because I've seen quite a few birds hanging out on my squash field, and I hope that they aren't picking my seeds out of the ground. Mike thinks that they're feasting on the worms that he churned up while rototilling, and I hope he's right. I guess I'll see when/if my squashes germinate.
In the regular vegetable garden, most of the seeds that I planted in May have begun coming up. The snow peas look fantastic, as do the beets and arugula (except for the bug holes). Green beans, lima beans, carrots, and scallions have started to come through as well. Half of my swiss chard bed is doing great. The other, non-Fedco seed half, is doing nothing. Clearly, I'll be doing better planning next year to get more Fedco seeds - they've germinated much better than the seeds I bought at the store. One of my potato plants seems to be emerging, but the asparagus is still doing absolutely nothing. I'm having doubts about the viability of those plants.
Below, from top to bottom, are: Bok Choy, swiss chard, radishes, lima beans, carrots, lemon cucumbers, lettuce (mesclun mix), green beans, and brussels sprouts & arugula. Please ignore the weeds. That's what I'm doing.
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