Planting Under a Red Sun

After the last few turbulent months, it seemed fitting to put in this year's garden while wearing a KN-95 mask. Long story short, we moved away for three months, decided it was a mistake, and came back home. That doesn't explain why I haven't posted anything new here in nearly three years, but I hope it gives a little context as to why I'm embracing the weirdness of gardening while the sky is yellow and the sun is red from wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada.

A photo can't do justice to the otherworldly color of the sun and sky

Part of me feels like I'm cheating this year. I have often been lazy in my gardening (hence the three year gap - not that I didn't plant, I just wasn't very active about it) but never have I relied almost exclusively on store-bought plants.

We bought the plants from Lowe's - and they were on sale!

We moved back into our house in early June. After unpacking everything and getting resettled (it was done quickly as I can't stand living among boxes), I turned my attention to the garden. Last summer's growing season fell in a shmita year, so I put in some wildflower seeds and let the garden do as it liked. (Click here to read my post about it.) I had done some cleaning up of the garden last fall, so it wasn't too much of a chore to get it back into planting order.

The garden before

Some flowers had come back from last year including one strong daisy plant (which I transplanted into one of the flowerbeds), and a lovely California poppy that I weeded around. I pulled out the sweet alyssum, forget-me-nots, and pretty little orange flowers that I couldn't readily identify to make room for my veggies. There was also quite a bit of dill growing in one of the beds. I decided to keep it and planted the cucumbers with it.

Dill and cucumbers, a perfect pairing

As has been typical of the garden, it was once again a bunny nursery this year. The munchkins were still resident when we first moved back but by the time I was ready to plant, they had moved out. I did make sure to repair the holes in the fence through which they had been coming and going. I love bunnies but I don't feel the need to actively feed them.

Bunnies hiding under the rhubarb on a hot day

Mama bunny made her nest in the pathway this year

So, with bunnies out and weeds pulled, I put in the plants I had purchased at Lowe's - two types of tomatoes, yellow and green squash, cantaloupe, basil, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes - and a few leftover seeds from previous years - chard and radishes. As I wrote before, I feel a bit like I cheated by using so many purchased plants but I'll just have to live with it.

All planted!

And while I actively made efforts to keep the rabbits from getting back in a eating my garden, I was more lenient with some other tenants - black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. I haven't seen them again since the heavy rains we had a few days ago, but I hope they're still around.