I've finally finished all of my planting! I got a few new herbs to add to the sides of my bales: French thyme, Spanish lavender, chives, chocolate mint and catnip. I've never given our cats fresh catnip before, and they were definitely interested. Maki sniffed at it and seemed to consider eating it, and Crimson rolled around and smashed her face on it!
I also saw an acorn squash plant at the store and I immediately thought of my Grandpa Watkins who used to grow acorn squash, among many other veggies and fruits. I remember when he first gave them to me. I had never had them before, so I asked him what you make with it, and he didn't seem to have any idea either! He was really funny about his gardens like that. I never really understood how he chose what he planted since he didn't do much cooking. I think it must've been curiosity to try a few new things each time!
The new thing I'm trying this year is using one recycled bale from last year, and I'm interested to see how it turns out. I just added some potatoes to the old bale today, since I've heard potatoes do well in second year bales, so we'll see how they turn out closer to the fall. Grandpa Watkins also grew the best yukon gold potatoes. He was really generous about sharing his harvest, and he would always say, "Well, grab a shovel!" I didn't mind, but I won't need a shovel for my potatoes - they should be easy to harvest from the bale by pulling it apart, which will be easy to do with the old bale.
Lastly, I added the onions and garlic that I've had growing on my counter. The garlic was definitely ready and had lots of green sprouts already. The onions took a little longer, but they did each have a sprout forming in the middle and white roots forming at the bottom. I've never done transplants from my own counter, so we'll see how it turns out. My mom has continued to help guide me with articles and tips, and she sent me the perfect t-shirt to encourage my gardening, which says "Stay at home. Plant a garden." I decided to do a larger garden and blog about it this year because of the global situation with COVID-19. Gardening is helping me to have something to look forward to each morning and I still want to share my garden with my friends and family.
Family is on my mind because I'm driving to Minnesota this week to visit. I won't be able to see everyone, but it will be so nice to see a few family members that I haven't seen since Christmas or earlier. I have been really careful with social distancing and sanitizing in hopes of getting to see my nephew Norbert for his 2nd birthday, which is coming up on this Saturday. I can't wait to celebrate with him and give him a giant hug!
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