Gardening

That heat dome missed us in the western part of the state, we're going to have rain for the next several days and we're back in flood watch warning world. There's still snow in the high country since it has been pretty cool up there even with rain. The river is pretty high already so the rain will bring flooding, two weeks before the anniversary of the massive flood last year. The one that closed Yellowstone NP for a week.

I managed to get flower beds in around my velveeta box of a dwelling over the last month, when the mowing people showed up, while I was not home last Sunday, they mowed down a clearly marked flower bed and shaved my grass - actually had grass rather than alfalfa and weeds like last year -so short that it is now dying even with watering and rain, nothing over +75F. I had to have a talk with the big boss on Tuesday about that. Him and my therapist and then I had, thankfully, a massage scheduled. My body feels better but I am still dealing with being pissed off. It's a long story.

But we have been experiencing seasonable weather the past month so it's been great for planting. I have a combination of seeds and plant starts from a nursery. Up here on the hill we have deer passing through all the time, trying to chase them off is fruitless, they'll look right at you like, "and your problem is..?" until you're five feet from them. So I planted flowers they won't eat, Nasturtiums, chives, lavender. Hopefully that will do but then they trample them because they can't eat them! Grrr.

My solution for growing anything else was to put them either up on my partially enclosed porch (6'x10') in pots and at my buddy's place down off the hill and out of the wind but the same deer. I out onions, potatoes and tomatoes there. Deer and rabbits don't seem to like nightshades, onions and peppery greens (nasturtiums).

On my porch I have a 16" pot of sugar snap peas for snacking on and for ambiance, because the enclosure is 1x6" in a slatted formation with 2" gap, I also have in pots verbena, morning glory and sweet peas... all of which the deer would devour. Then I have some petunias and moon flowers on a spiral stand in the corner and last but not least, a grape crate (30"x 12"x 8&quot which I lined with newspaper, filled with dirt and planted short rows of radish, spinach and 2 kinds of lettuce. Micro gardening, haven't tried it with so much gusto in a while but I need both fresh food and flowers for my mental health. Gardening is good therapy.

Sounds like you have a large yard, over the past few decades I have come to recognize what a blessing that is. There are a few in my past that I really miss.