The Garden Fairy Chronicles, part III

This is such a busy time in the garden, I have loads of pictures and stories to share. However, this is such a busy time in the garden, time to edit photos and write has not been easy to find. The garden fairy has been a wonderful helper.

Early one morning, she helped me plant the cucumbers. These are one of her favorites. If she could pick them herself, I think she would eat them right out of the garden. I prefer to wash them first, but I did get an English variety with thin skins and some mini varieties that might not need peeling. If you noticed the pajamas and bed head, yes, getting out to plant the cucumbers before the sun comes out to burns Mommy takes priority over proper grooming.

We planted four varieties. Miniature white and little tyke are both small and supposed to be very early, 35-45 days. The English cucumber is Chelsea Prize. The last is painted serpent, which is actually a melon that can grow to 3-4 feet long, but is better eaten like a cucumber around 15 inches. These are all new varieties to us. Last year, we hadn’t yet discovered the many varieties available online or in catalogs. Last year was also a horrible year for the cucumbers. I planted many seeds that didn’t grow or were devoured by critters as mere seedlings. The couple vines that actually survived produced disappointingly bitter cucumbers. Oddly, I think one of the seeds survived and sprouted in what is now the bean bed.

After the cucumbers were planted, I did corral the garden fairy long enough to get her hair brushed. Then, she was back to her gardening.

Always more work to be done, but cleaning the pool wasn’t too bad with visions of swimming fun filling her head.

While she started on the pool, I took the laundry down, only to find more evidence of what a great helper the garden fairy is.

At last, the work was done and it was time for fun.

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The Garden Fairy Chronicles is my contribution to the kinderGARDENS project. The goal is to get more kids out into the garden. This week’s links can be found here, at the inadvertent farmer, or you can click the button below for all the details.