Fencing??

Ok now perhaps some of you were wondering why I decided to call the blog "gongshow gardener" well if you where in my yard today watching me put up fencing for the peas you would have understood the purpose of the name immediately. In addition, "gongshow" is actually synonym for beginner - the beauty of a thesaurus. Anyway, back to the fencing, so the farmer (I think you'll remember him as the character that provided me with the seedlings) provided me with plastic fencing for my peas, which was amazing. He also provided me with some instructions: "Make sure it's taught." Taught, as in tight not loose. This at first may seem like a very simple instruction, however, it is not. In preparation to make my fencing taught I purchased some gardening string (yes, it does exist and it's even green!!) and stakes - the stakes have made an appearance before. So I set about unraveling, cutting, and stringing up the malleable, white plastic fencing. Just so we are clear, there is only one of me and I could tell by the look on Siska's face that I looked absolutely ridiculous sitting on my freshly cut clover (yes, I finally mowed and raked the lawn) with the string, fencing and stakes. However, after much jerry-rigging due to my failure to follow the old adage "measure twice and cut once." In hindsight, perhaps not the best idea;) So needless to say after an hour, yes, yes, it took me an hour to put up about a total of 6 feet of fencing (2 sections) I had the fencing up. Now I cross my fingers that the peas, that have started to emerge through the earth from the seeds that I planted in the ground start climbing the fencing. In other words, I hope that I installed the fencing correctly and that it is indeed taught enough. Something tells me that it is most likely not, which would make me depressed . . . just at the thought of having to go through that again.

In a side note, in addition to mowing and raking the clover, I did manage to get the third tire I needed for the third potato mound. This means that prior to my departure on a business trip bright and early tomorrow morning the garden is ready for my five day absence. The only thing is that I have yet to find anyone to water my garden. I did make the offer to my neighbour that I would pay his daughter 20 dollars to do it while I was gone (she did tell me how beautiful she thought my garden was) but he looked and me and said that he would do it. I guess my first inclination was correct, 9 years old is too young to be paid to water your neighbours garden. So, tonight I will ask him to water twice a day for me while I am away - hopefully he will and my garden will survive my absence. It is supposed to rain while I am gone . . . fingers crossed.

In preparation for my trip I did much weeding and I also noticed that I few more things are breaking through the ground. I now have peas, beans (which you know about), some swiss char some carrots, and perhaps the part of the beet that is above ground. To be perfectly honest I am slightly unsure because I have never grown any of these veggies before I really don't know what they look like - only where I planted them, thanks to Marki's signage tip!!

One last note prior to signing off is that I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the left side of my herb garden. It looked quite flat, not dying but literally flat. As the picture illustrates I found out who the culprit was, not the rabbits, not the squirrels, but my lovely Siska . . . so comfortable in the soft, cushiony feeling the herbs provide.