The Race to the End of May

In East Texas, it is important to get all your heavy-duty planting done by the end of May, particularly seeds. There is still frequent rain, which helps get plants started and seeds sprouting, and it is not yet so unbearably hot, you can't work more than an hour or so in the morning before about 10 o'clock and maybe a couple of hours in the late afternoon, early evening. Of course, to complicate life, I decided to reassemble my "RV" deck at the side of the house. After I get it put up, I'll build a 3 foot extension so that the back door opens on the deck too. I couldn't manage to get it situated in the right place because of the back door steps, hence the extension. So, first the deck.....

Reassembling the "Chez Sugar" Deck
When I had the travel trailer, before settling down in San Augustine, I built a deck for the trailer that was bolted together so it could be disassembled go with me as I traveled, then set it up when I parked the trailer. Good idea, but not practical since it was too heavy to take along except on permanent moves and too much work both to disassemble and to reassemble. Never the less, I did move it with me to San Augustine and decided to reassemble it here at 610 East Columbia since I don't plan to move from here until it's time for a nursing home. Below is a couple of pictures of how the deck looked when it adorned the trailer. The sweet dog in one of the pictures was my shitsu, Chewy, who since the picture was taken has gone to doggy heaven.
















The next picture is how the back door looked last year where I have now reassembled the deck.
Next are some pictures of how the deck looks now reassembled.
















































Edgings:
Another large project was to line the borders of the back-yard bed and the new beds around the deck with red-dyed, cement edging ($1.97 for one 16-inch piece.) This was necessary to keep the soil from running out of the beds when I water. The edging is not yet installed in the deck beds, but you can see it in the picture of the back-door bed.

Plantings:
While I was still assembling the deck, to "spell" myself, I began planting both plants and seed.

Plants: I found portulaca on sale 2 for 1, and bought two six-packs. One I planted with a pot of purslane in an old bird bath that wouldn't serve any longer as a bird bath. I had replaced the one in the bird-bath bed. I also had already planted six purple and white petunias and six pink petunias in the back-door bed. I bought two hanging baskets for the bird feeder hooks (plus another seed-type feeder) and planted red and white petunias in the new hanging baskets. In addition, I separated some purple and lavender verbena from a three-year old pot and planted a start of each color in the back-door bed. I also bought on "clearance" a hanging basket of Boston fern, which I plan to divide, a pot of "blanket daisies" which I planted on the left-hand side of the deck bed and a pot of yellow kolanchoe, which I planted on the right-hand side of the deck bed, but will probably end up moving.
Seeds: I don't usually have much luck with seeds, but I never give up. I planted miniature xenia seed strips from Parker (which don't come up--at least not more than about 1/2 of the seeds, but none the less, I planted strips just inside the cement border edging of the deck beds. I did the same thing May 14 when I put the edging around the back-door bed, but so far nada. I planted red morning glories (seed from Lowes that cost $2.24 for 17 seeds!!) I soaked the seeds overnight and planted them on May 18. Glory be!! they are coming up today (May 21.) I also planted purple cone-flower seeds in the beds in front of the deck. (52 seeds--count them-- for $2.24, also from Lowe's) I planted about 32 blue morning glory seeds back along the fence behind the garden. Soaked them too, so maybe they'll come up too. I've also planted Shasta
Daisies (two pots), thyme and oreganos seeds. The daisies and oregano are coming up, but so far nada from the thyme. I also bought a pot of basil with three plants in it. Divided it and put one plant in the back-yard bed near the rosemary, two in pots, and gave away one.
Transplanting: Although it's supposed to be hard to transplant Zinnias, I gave it a shot and transplanted into pots several that "volunteered" in the bird-bath bed. They are flourishing. Today, I planted two "game cock" coleus I rooted, one in each of the pots of zinnias.


How the Garden Grows:
Here are three pictures from the "farm" showing how the corn grew: April 3, April 23, and May 21.