The Modern Victory Garden

Today was another warm and sunny day.   This morning I finished watering the last of the garden beds.   Everything was quite dry so I took extra time this weekend to do a deep soaking - particularly in the potato patches.   By the end of the three-day weekend, I had managed to get through all the beds with a thorough soaking.    

In addition to finishing up the watering tasks, I also pulled the last broccoli plants and harvested the remaining side shoots.   They were pretty well gone by and there is so much more coming on in the garden right now that eeking out a few more side shoots just is not worth the effort or bed space.   I lightly cultivated the soil in that section and then broadcast seeded some buckwheat for a green manure cover crop.   Buckwheat is one of my favorite green manure crops but I rarely get to use it because it is a tender plant that can only be grown in the warm summer months.   Typically, I have very few open sections in the garden during the summer - since I regularly plant succession crops.   However, this bed is in an area that does not get good fall/winter sun exposure so it will not be used again until next spring.   I will follow the buckwheat green manure crop with a fall cover crop planting of crimson clover, which should get the soil in prime condition by next spring.   I keep a 1 lb bag of buckwheat seed and about 3 lbs of crimson clover seed on hand because I like to use green manure/cover crops on a regular basis - particularly in the fall with crimson clover.                                   

None of these tasks took too much time, and my husband and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Point No Point beach during the mid-day low tide and had a lovely beach walk.   Played in some tide pools, day dreamed about what it would be like to live in the lighthouse, sat on the driftwood and soaked up sun, and generally just spent a few hours watching the world go by and enjoying the sea air and grand Puget Sound views.   This County Park is just a short distance from our home and is one of our favorite beach destinations.           

On the way back from the beach walk, we stopped at Port Gamble, which is an old timber town and Washington's oldest surviving company town.   Port Gamble is just 4 miles from our house and this charming location is a fun place to spend a Sunday afternoon.   We had some lunch at the General Store cafe, which is located right next to the beautiful Walker-Ames House (reputed to be haunted).                           

After a yummy lunch of cucumber salad and blue cheese/grilled onion burgers, we made one last stop at the old livery stable.   This old carriage barn and stables has been converted into an antique barn - where I found a great old compost sifter!         

I have been meaning to make myself a compost sifter using Dan's (Urban Veggie Garden Blog) directions/example, but this old farm implement will do nicely instead.   It will get many more years of use in my Modern Victory Garden.     

I hope you were able to enjoy a relaxing summer Sunday too.