The Frilly Garden 2012: 7 days in, 6 plants dead

I have bad news.

The watermelons didn’t make it. Not a single survivor. I blame the cold temperatures we had last week.

There’s more bad news.

We lost a tomato plant too. The wind snapped it near the beginning of the week. Efforts were made to revive it, but we failed.

We’ve decided that we’ll use the mound we had for watermelon for our peppers instead. We’ll put some black landscaping fabric on the mound before we plant the peppers. The landscaping fabric serves two purposes: it will keep the earth warmer, which is great for plants like peppers, and it will help keep the weeds down. We may do the same for our tomato rows. Then we’ll probably put natural mulch over the landscaping fabric – the mulch will keep the fabric in place, and further warm the earth and keep the weeds down.

This week brought our first round of weeding. Yes, you really should weed your garden often. It took me about 2 minutes to do the whole thing, which really isn’t bad at all. If you stay on top of it, it’s much less painful. I take a big ice cream bucket around with me and put the weeds in it, then dump them elsewhere when I’m finished.

Check out this week’s weed haul:

Surprising isn’t it? I didn’t think I’d get that much either.

Now, for the most exciting news of the week! I always like to finish on a high note…

My husband made me a new (well, re-purposed wood new) herb box! All made from re-purposed wood from an old play structure we had in our back yard. I love that the wood is weathered. I love that it’s nice and big and can hold lots of lovely herbs. I loved that I actually got to help put some nails in it. I especially love that we got to make it together.

Here is our collection of annual herbs. They are growing so quickly!

Italian Flat Leaf Parsley.

Barbecue Rosemary. I have no idea why it’s called barbecue rosemary. If anyone knows, please tell me.

Purple Ruffled Basil. Like regular basil, but with a bit of a clove taste. And purple! and ruffley! It looks a bit sad in this picture, but we had just watered it, and it was having a little nap after it’s drink.

Genovese Basil. The classic. Think pesto. I just love touching it when I walk by – the aroma just brings good feelings.

Cilantro. Our newest addition. We got it a week ago, when it was only about a centimetre tall. I have a new love affair with cilantro – I’m going to give this one some extra love.

Here is this week’s garden photo. It’s not filling in much yet, but you can bet it’s going to.

All in all, we spent an entire afternoon outdoors working. I think a little reward is in order, don’t you?

Cheers, y’all.