Spring Along the Paerdegat - Goslings and Garden

Actually it felt more like summertime this weekend - highs in the low 80's, and some summer-type thunderstorms on Saturday. Sunday was absolutely gorgeous, could've been a lovely boating day but I decided I really wanted to get my garden planted instead. At one point a wetsuit did end up in my backpack, just in case, but then I realized that gardening is always one of those things that always ends up taking me more time than I think it's going to, so I took the wetsuit back out. First stop was Dragonetti's, the garden supply shop on Ralph Avenue that ends up getting most of my gardening money for the simple reason that they're with easy walking distance of the club, just about a mile. I look for a ride when I'm getting soil to refresh the bed (insert annual "Dirt cheap? No, dirt expensive" joke here), but when it's time to get the seeds and seedlings, I bring a big shopping bag with handles from home and I can carry everything I need to the club that way.

The walk to the club up Paerdegat Avenue North has gotten much nicer as the NYC Parks Department has been slowly working on a park that runs along the basin from the end up to around Paerdegat 10, where the boating clubs start.  The park has developed slowly, I think it's something that the Parks Department sends people to work on when things are slow, but the tract of land has gradually gone from dense, weedy scrub that people just used as a dumping ground to a nice combination of open land, patches of trees, and ponds. It's not open to humans yet but this family of Canada geese certainly looked like they are appreciating the change. First baby waterfowl I've seen this year!

After a quick break to get that picture, I headed on down to the club. Here's this year's assortment: 3 kinds of tomatoes (Mr. Stripey, Tigerella, and, uh, another one), cucumbers, basil, and then Swiss chard and beet seeds. Also trying to get the herb bucket going again with rosemary, sage and thyme - that was a combo that had survive a few winters, but being inundated in seawater was was too much for them; I did try to restart this last year but they didn't take; giving it another shot this year. Oh, and I got a Scotch bonnet pepper 'cause TQ loves hot peppers (and I like 'em myself in moderation). Other than the pepper, pretty much same old same old, I'm not very adventurous with my gardening, I have been doing this long enough now that I've got a layout that works pretty well & provides a nice steady assortment of fresh stuff over the summer. The tomatoes are all experiments, I haven't ever quite settled on any particular type as my favorites yet.

I did also throw in some ageratum seeds that have been sitting in a drawer in the kitchen for who knows how long - I love ageratum's fluffy blue flowers. Oh, that reminds me I should try to get a cosmo going again too - I had a positive thicket of those my first year of gardening, before I realized that I really prefer growing food to growing flower - I pulled 'em out but I always had one that came up next to the onions and gave a really nice show in the fall. That one also didn't make it - the onions were the only thing tough enough to shake off Sandy.

Here's the haul from Dragonetti's:

With all the rain we've had in the 2 weeks since I got the bed ready, a nice haze of tiny green weed leaves had surfaced  - when I saw that, I was actually glad I'd left my wetsuit at home, I hardly think I got all of them but I did give the surface a light raking to pull them all up and then spent a good long time picking them out before I put my seedlings in.  

All done! 

And speaking of flowers - I may not grow as many myself since I realized I prefer growing food, but T. in the next bed over always has a lovely assortment! I don't even know what these are but look how pretty. Boy, this is the sort of picture I would just find myself drooling over during this long, cold winter when a California or Hawaii friend would post some sort of floral festiveness on Facebook - ooooh, color! 

So nice to have the color back here again.