A brief garden update:  Today we transplanted eight green pepper plants and one hot pepper plant.  We also planted eight of one kind of green bean, eight of another kind of green bean, and eight yellow wax beans.  Tomorrow, we will put in the eight black beans and then that is that.  Our lettuce is ready to start some harvesting, but we’ll probably wait until the end of the week for that, since we just bought a bunch of lettuce from the farmer’s market.  Can’t wait to try it! 

Also, we found a pesky imported cabbageworm on our Brussels sprouts.  I doubt that there is only one, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for those critters.  I read that you can sprinkle corn meal on the damp leaves and when they eat the corn meal, they’ll bloat and die.  So we’ll give that a shot.  There is to be no poison around our foodstuffs!

We finished the remulching and we did a bunch of trimming of the long grasses that grew up around and in the fence around the garden so it is photo-ready now.  Maybe I’ll get some shots tomorrow.

I finally got a chance to take pictures of the garden.  They’re in this set on Flickr. 

We got Phoebe’s biopsy results yesterday.  She has no cancer, which is great news!  So, for now, she’ll stay on her medication and we’ll assess at a later time.

As a side note, she hates her medications and she hates me for giving them to her.  She spits them out and gets all sticky and messy under her chin.  I’ve tried to use leave-on cat shampoo and it’s helped a bit but I need to do some more.  She’s sort of a mess!

Garden note:  Sweet potatoes went in last Wednesday, but I don’t think they’ll survive.  We got them a couple of days prior and I don’t think we took good enough care of them prior to planting.  So, if they don’t, lesson learned but not a huge loss.  I’m really new to the sweet potato game and I’m not sure what got into us ordering 24 seedlings. 

We’re on vacation this week and when we return, we’ll plant the peppers and beans.  Then that’s it!  The garden is looking really good!  I really must get down there with a camera…

This has been one heckuva day.  Nay - one heckuva week. 

Monday - our elder cat, Phoebe, went in for dental work and biopsy of a mass in her throat.  When all was said and done, she had EIGHT teeth removed and packed with bone grafts and TWO symmetrical masses in her throat biopsied.  She has been on morphine via pain patch since then and hasn’t done a whole lot other than sort of float on a morphine high and drool a little.  She seems comfortable enough, though, and her appetite is definitely unaffected.

Tuesday - hmmm, what happened that day?  Oh yea.  I went to the gastroenterologist for a follow-up to the biopsy taken during my last endoscopy.  And got bad news.  I’m going to be walking on pins and needles for the rest of my life.  Let’s hope that’s a long, long time.

Wednesday - physical therapy for my newly surgered knee.  That was OK, except that they made me ride a stationary bike that had a seat about 1½ inches wide and proceeded to wedge itself quite uncomfortably into my physique for the six minutes I had to ride it.  That’s my last physical therapy, though, so no more butt mining for me!

Thursday - due to one particular lifestyle change from Tuesdays not-so-happy revelation (giving up my caffeinated coffee), I suffered what could be the worst headache of my life.  And I get migraines and cluster headaches.  This seriously stopped me in my tracks and made me wonder how I was going to get someone to get me to the hospital.  Then I realized what it was and gulped down some caffeine-loaded Excedrin, which took care of it.  I think the cold turkey approach is not the way to go with this one.  So I’ll step down gradually until I’m fully decaffeinated.

Friday - who knows what that day holds?!?  What I do know is that it is my last day of work before a week of vacation.  And I swear - I am not working next week.  NOT AT ALL!  So, if you are any of my family members reading this, do not send me e-mails to my work e-mail address.  I will not be reading them.  Y’all have my gmail address - please use that one.

So how was your week?

Really quick!  Today, we planted:

1.  One more basil plant
2.  One more tarragon plant
3.  Four pickling cucumbers
4.  Four seedless cucumbers
5.  One acorn squash
6.  One yellow zucchini
7.  One canteloupe
8.  One dill plant
9.  Two periwinkles
10.  Eight or so various flower plants
11.  One already gone tulip plant
12.  One already gone hyacinth plant

We also got the asparagus from last year back into shape.  This is year 3 for that so we should actually get some harvest from that this year - yay! 

I think that’s it.  The only things left for the vegetable garden are the sweet potatoes (whenever they arrive from Burpee), the sweet peppers, the hot peppers, and the numerous types of beans we’ll be planting.  Those will all go in the first week in June and then we’ll just sit back and watch ‘em all grow!

I hope to have more pictures up on my Flickr as soon as I get a chance to venture down there with the camera.

Yesterday, we planted three tomato plants (two in a Topsy Turvy and one in a container) and six herb plants (two tarragon, two flat leaf parsley, and two basil) in an EarthBox.  Those are all on the deck.

Status of things previously planted:

1.  Onions and leeks look good.  Stalks are strong and green.
2.  Scallions have sprouted and are about 3 inches tall.
3.  Brussels Sprouts plants are gorgeous.  Two of them are particularly strong and green.
4.  Beets have sprouted.  They are microscopic, but they are there.
5.  We have 15-20 potato plants sprouting that need to be covered with dirt.  That will be done in the next couple of days.
6.  The radishes are adorable!  No - more than that - they are adorabubble!!  They are so neat and tidy in their little rows! 
7.  Lettuce has sprouted (must be thinned - we planted too many in each square).
8.  We have about 8 pea plants that are about 2-3 inches tall.

I haven’t seen any carrots yet.  But that’s the only thing that we planted that hasn’t sprouted yet.  We have to plant some more herbs that we have started and soon it will be time to get some more plants in the dirt - we still have to plant sweet potatoes, several kinds of beans, cucumbers, sweet peppers, hot peppers, summer squash and winter squash.  Fun!