Slowly But Surely

My planting is coming along slowly but surely. I picked up 3 more cubic yards of a lightweight potting mix and one cubic yard of Miracle Gro garden soil this afternoon. I mixed some of the MG garden soil into the potting mix, we'll see if that makes any difference. I also picked up 9 small wastebaskets and 4 16"-diameter grey plastic buckets to use as planters. I had two 3-cell packs of peppers and two 4-cell packs of peppers - jalapenos, habaneros, red and green sweet peppers - so I planted all but one of each variety into 6 of the wastebaskets and 4 laundry-detergent-bottle planters from last summer. The remaining 4 plants, one of each variety, will go into the garden Monday. I had four 4-cell packs of red and white petunias, I planted 4 in each of two of the plastic buckets and 4 in a pot I had that was basically the same size, then planted 2 each into two more of the wastebaskets. I have one small wastebasket left, I'll probably plant some Verbena in that. I also have two buckets left - more verbena. I also picked up 4 more fence hangars for 6" pots, and the last 4 begonias will go into them and all 8 begonias (4 white, 4 pink) will hang on the patio fence on the inside where the dogs won't get them. I did a bigger pot with 4 begonias in it, that's out front by the light pole. I still have some impatiens to plant, those are going on my patio shelf and in hanging baskets. And I have the rest of the verbena, I'm not sure yet where I'm going to plant them.

I picked up the last of my tomatoes today. I wanted another Cherokee Purple, because I didn't start seeds indoors this year using seeds I saved from last year. I may try starting one directly in a "pot" (probably a wastebasket) and see if it can catch up, but maybe not. I picked up two Red Brandywines (heirlooms), something called a Sunset (orangey-red on the top fading down to yellow on the bottom of the tomato) and an Early Girl (fruit in 51-60 days, a whole month before the others). I got all 4 of those into the garden this evening. The lumberyard was closed, I'll have to wait until Monday to get the cages for them. (I'm not going to fiddle around with staking this year, I'm going to get re-usable wire cages for $1.69 each.)

I also got the hanging pole for my hanging tomatoes - went to Lowe's and got a 10' length of 3/4" galvanized pipe, had them cut it to 8'. Tomorrow, I'm going to work on building the two uprights that'll hold the pipe. I'm short a few 3" wood screws so I won't be able to finish it until the lumberyard opens again on Monday, but then I should be able to finish it and hang the buckets. When it's all done I'll take pics.

While I was sitting here having coffee this morning, Spooky walked up and asked to be petted. Right behind him came Snickers. He looked up at me, then walked up to headbutt Spooky while casually placing his body where I could reach it. So I reached over and started to skritch, which he thoroughly enjoyed. We played this game for 10 minutes, Snickers pretending he didn't know I was petting him but coming back again and again for more. He was so transparent I had to bite my cheek to keep from laughing out loud. I suspect he's going to be a major lover one of these days, but I'm going to have to play by his rules to get him there. That's OK, I can't even tell you how thrilled I am that he's giving me these opportunities to pet him, and I'm willing to be patient and wait for the day he actually asks to be touched.

Irenie's a terrific mom. She's doing such a good job that I cuddle the babies a couple of times a day so they get handled, but I haven't had to spend much time in there with them. I make time for a couple of cuddle sessions with Irenie, too, and tell her how proud I am that she's doing such a good job. This little window of quiet time will be coming to an end shortly, though; they'll be a week old tomorrow and they should start opening their eyes soon. Then the fun starts!