Garden Update

 A few weeks ago, I blogged about the new cutting garden that my mom and I are putting in on the farm this year, and we’d just planted 70+ dahlia tubers. It’s been a busy span of time since. 

Most of the dahlias are either fully up, and have been pinched back to promote branching and more flowering later in the season, or are showing at least a few signs of life. We had a few duds, to be expected, but just a few so far. Dahlia can be finicky - it's time to put out slug bait, for instance - so I'm hoping or mild-so-far Georgia temps will get them started well. Right now, the three dahlia bed are encircled by bird netting to keep Strider out of them  - ha! - but soon we'll put up the supportive netting in layers that will allow the stems to grow tall without flopping over in the wind and rain. 

We set up some of it today on the other three beds, where this week we planted peonies, and sowed sunflower and zinnia seeds - also to keep Strider out. He's a garden criminal. 

Next to the cutting garden is my little veggie garden, which has become something of an obsession for me over the past two years. This year, I went tomato-heavy, with lots of heirloom varieties, some new, from seed packets, and some from seeds I collected, dried, and saved from last year's harvest. All are up, thriving, and either in bloom or about to bloom. I've even got a few baby tomatoes on the stems. 

A new addition is the chicken house, delivered this week and installed at the back of the cutting garden, against the big pasture fence. Once it's retrofitted, and equipped with an outdoor run, it will be the new home of the six buff Orpington pullets currently living in temporary digs in the garage. There's nothing like buying chicken before you have a place to house them. 

I try to post weekly, if not daily garden updates in my Instagram stories (@hppress), so you can follow along there for more details and tomato closeups, lol. It's also where I post my "walks" through the cottage garden around the house. I'm big into bloom portraits. 

I'm hoping the next few months yield lots of color and spectacle from all that's been planted so far, so I'll be back with more progress photos and hopefully a lovely bouquet or two.