The Garden Grows

We planted potatoes on Saturday. On Sunday, the husband raked up and burned debris around the garden and we assembled two hoops for the corn. I put the Painted Mountain and some of the Montana Cudu corn out under one of the hoops. It was 27 degrees when I woke up yesterday morning and the corn appeared to be nice and toasty inside the hoop:

The heavier row cover makes a big difference. Lows are only supposed to get down to the mid-30s (at most) for the next week. The corn should be okay under the row cover for the remainder of the spring. The husband reminded me that we can always put a concrete blanket over top of the row cover if it looks like we’ll get any really low temps.

I am waiting to plant the corn under the second hoop because I want to make sure that a ground squirrel does not come through and hoover up the seedlings. (I still have seed left and could replant if that happens, but at that point, it would be a full-out war on ground squirrels.) I don’t think corn seedlings are as tasty as cabbage seedlings, though.

Several of our neighbors have also seen the fox. Theresa, who lives across the street from us, opened her back door one night and it was standing on her porch. Perhaps it has a den with kits somewhere?

I planted peas yesterday morning. The husband built a sturdy permanent trellis for them last year. I grow a shelling variety called “Alaska" and they have always produced well. The currants have started leafing out and the raspberries are not far behind. I am very pleased with the progress of the big garden this year. It helps to make up for the destruction in the herb garden, which looks like a bomb went off in there. I need to get back to cleaning that up.

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The grommets arrived:

While looking for an online supplier that had grommets in stock in the size I needed with reasonable shipping times, I ran across this kit. It had everything I needed in one box. I discussed appropriate grommet spacing and hanging options with the husband last night during our daily debriefing. I’ll set the grommets and he’ll take care of hanging the shade, and we can cross that project off the list.

I’m still working on masks. DD#2 asked me to make her some black ones to coordinate fashionably with her wardrobe. I made those and sent them with some potholders yesterday. She also asked me to make her a pouch to hold her resuable straws. The Canvas Pencil Pouch, which is a free Noodlehead/Anna Graham pattern, should work nicely. Anna has also released a couple of bag patterns recently. I have more waxed canvas on order so I can make myself a bag for this summer.

And I started something new:

Neutrals are so not my colors, but this is coming together nicely and I want to see where it goes. The pattern is ridiculously simple, made up of quarter-square triangles alternating with 5” squares.