Susanna J. Sturgis: Writer • Editor • Martha's Vineyard

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My Garden

June 12, 2010

The past couple of years I've grown stuff in pots and planters on my deck. Most everything did OK and my fingers liked messing in the dirt, so when Sarah next door said she wasn't going to use the little boat garden out back, would I like to use it? I said sure. This was way back around March, long before I'd have to do anything about it (Grandma never put anything outside before Memorial Day). I missed the annual COMSOG (Community Solar Greenhouse) seedling sale, which runs from Mother's Day till the end of May, because I was too broke and too distracted. I missed it last year for the same reasons, plus last year it didn't feel warm enough to plant till about the middle of August.

I did, however, prepare my soil. After I'd raked out the leaves, pulled the weeds, and mixed in two buckets of composted manure and about half a cubic foot of potting soil, it looked like this:

Here's me taking
a picture of it.

So the weather got warmer then cooler, then warmer and cooler again, and I kept putting off the next step, which was to buy some plants. This involves spending money and I don't know what I'm doing. This is a bad combination, so the procrastination went on for some time. Yesterday, though, I got myself to Heather Gardens, strolled up and down the rows pulling a little flatbed wagon, and wound up at the cashier's shed with cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, coleus, and some pretty purple flowers that, according to the label, are phlox hybrids, "Intensia Lavender Glow." It only cost me 37 bucks and change. I feel like I got a deal, and without waiting for the half-price sale.

It was overcast, cool, and sometimes drizzly, but I set about planting my new stuff. Here's what the little boat looks like now:

Up on the deck, I've got coleus (I think it's coleus) in the terra cotta planter and Intensia Lavender Glow (aka pretty purple flowers) in the built-in planter box. Like this:

Now I've got several empty starter pots and flats, and some big pots that need filling, so my next step is to get some seeds and see if they'll grow. It rained last night, a nice soaking rain like we haven't had much of this spring. Feels like a good omen.

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