off to bed

The beds are finally put to bed, all tucked in for their short summer nights with their blankets of belly wool and other unusable bits from our sheep's fleeces. It helps keep the weeds down, and also makes manure tea for the plants every time it rains. We also suspect it might help with the rabbits -- at least, that's our unofficial observation. The marigolds are also there for the varmints who would make mincemeat of our garden.

The grey fleece in this bed, which stretched out four feet wide and six feet long, was the neck wool from our ewe whose fleece is a consistent prizewinner. It made me cry to put it on the garden, but it was so contaminated with miniscule bits of hay that it was unusable for any other purpose. Sob.

The fleece can be a bit of an issue for seeds that we have planted beneath it, as they have just as much trouble as the weeds breaking through. Here a little bean plant was all tangled up in wool and had to be liberated. I think it looks like it is entombed in a foamy pod from some 50s horror flick.

Speaking of horror... while looking for the potato sprouts in another part of the garden, I uncovered this accumulation of weeds under the fleece, trying (so far in vain) to break through.

Terzo, the berry fanatic, has his eye on the first (and possibly only) strawberry of the season. If something else gets it before he does, there's going to be much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, plus possibly some tears and whining.

My step-MIL gave us some extra bean plants this past weekend, but unfortunately the beds are all full up. I cannot just throw little plants away, so they are taking their chances against the fence. It is survival of the fittest bean. (I tried to circle them so you can see them but obviously I will need to upgrade my picture editing service, as "Paint" just doesn't cut it. For you tech geeks out there, hope you didn't spit coffee onto your screen thinking about me using such a dinosaur).

As I was taking the pictures of the raspberry canes, a tiny dragonfly landed on one of the leaves. (Again, helpfully circled for you.) Definitely one of those little wonderful things that keep me going back to the dirt and sweat and weeds.