City Farmhouse Journal

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo and Juliet Act 2, Sc. 2

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Around the garden today

• Cut the first roses of the season!!!
• Pruned The Boss's lemon tree; added fertilizer - I'm not sure it's going to grow more lemons....
• Planted onions among the roses on the west side of the house; need to remember to add substantial amounts of compost to the flower bed in the fall
• Weeds, weeds, weeds - ugh
• Organized the gardening tools
• First day to line dry the laundry -- woohoo!
  

What about tomorrow?

• Weeds -- I know, but somebody's got to do it
• Add weed cover between the new garden boxes The Boss built for me!!  (He's such a sweetie!)
• Need a truckload of
  • gravel for between boxes
  • compost
    

Dear Farmhouse Diary,

I love our farmhouse! It will be 100 years old next year - amazing. The bones are good, but there is so much to do to give her glory a bit more shine. The uncertainty resulting from the pandemic makes it a bit easier to prioritize the tasks -- more garden! It's too bad we do not have much of a back yard, but we can make the front and the sides work for us. This last week The Boss built four more garden boxes to go with the three out front. And we are going to finally build the fence!  The Boss has not been a fan of either a garden out front nor of a fence, but he's finally come round to the idea. Yay!!

I am a farmgirl at heart and would love a few acres with a barn and a pond or creek.  My grandparents came from farming families and I remember driving the tractor as one Grandfather put in his tobacco and harvesting apples and cherries for canning with a Grandmother. My favorite book in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series is Farmer Boy. I go silly over wide open fields growing grain or corn and the way the sunlight seems to fall differently on those fields. I adore picking blackberries at the end of the day just when the heat begins to fade and the berries are still warm when you bite down on them. I like the smell of a farm -- the musty heat of the barn, the pungent aroma of chickens and cows, and the feel of mud clinging to my boots.

It might be silly to attempt to create an approximation of these farm elements on a city lot with just enough room for gardening, but I'm going to give it a try.  No cows or chickens -- well, maybe a few chickens in the future....

The Boss is not going to like this idea.