The Time Has Come and then Surprise!

    Well the time has finally come to put plants and seeds in the ground. We have been waiting for this day with great anticipation and it seemed that it took forever to get here, but the day had finally arrived. Kathy and I awoke at our usual time since we both had to work on Saturday, but it was with more excitement than usual as today was planting day. We had been watching the weather forecasts all week to assure that we would have good weather for planting and although there was a possibility of scattered showers or thunder storms we planned to get home as soon as possible and start planting. The morning passed slowly as time usually does when you're anticipating an event that means a lot to you. We arrived home to sunny and warm weather with a few scattered clouds and I thought you couldn't ask for a better day for putting plants and seeds in the ground. We had already discussed where the various plants would go in each of the garden plots so things progressed rather quickly. We put in habanero and green bell pepper plants, beefsteak and cherry tomato plants, kale plants, yellow crooked neck squash, green bean and several varieties of cucumber seeds. Our little farm in the city was finally starting to look like one.

This is just one of our garden plots and you can see we also have two large containers at one side of the garden these were planted with container corn from Burpee. We have wanted to grow sweet corn but with our limited space we've always decided that we could make better use of this space with smaller plants but this year we were able to get some hybrid corn made just for container gardening.
   We had put in other plants earlier, such as lettuce, potatoes, onions, snap peas and bok choi all of which are doing well. The raspberry plants are growing by leaps and bounds and we are expecting a nice late summer harvest of these tasty fruits. Sunday morning came and the weather was nice once again and I thought the severe thunderstorms which were forecast would probably not materialize so we took the opportunity to to some more work in the gardens such as putting down weed block cloth and setting up the a-frame trellises for the cucumber vines to grow on. We ate lunch on the patio and noticed black clouds rolling in from the north and after hearing some thunder in the distance we decided to beat a hasty retreat to the house. We listened to the claps of thunder and estimated this storm cell would slip to our east and so we took up spots on the front steps to watch lightening strikes in the distance. We noticed that clouds were building quickly in our direction and the wind was now blowing strongly. I made a decision to pull tarps over the rabbit hutches and while I was going this I could hear Kathy and Justin shouting to hurry. I had the last tarp pulled down and felt a sting on my lower back and then another and another. I looked out from under the hutch overhang and saw hail the size of marbles pommeling the freshly planted garden. I was really worried now that all our planting would be for nothing. After the storm we surveyed the the gardens and were relieved to find the most of the plants were small enough to avoid being damaged and only a few leaves on the cabbage and brussel sprouts were shredded. So our urban farm made it through the first surprise thrown by nature but I know there'll be more. I hope you continue to follow us during our growing season as we share what's going on with the gardens, the rabbits and the other projects which we'll be starting soon.

                                                           We made it through!!!