May 24, 2004 - Inside the tomato tent I planted Sweet Millions and some Ultra Girls. The Sweet Millions grow tall and need staking. The fruit will hang like clusters of grapes, I'm told.

May 24, 2004 - The Evans Cherry in full bloom. There will be lots of sour cherries this year. After a severe pruning last fall, the Evans cherry has nicely transformed from a bush to a tree. I want to dig out the yellow rose and plant another Evans cherry in its place. And boy, would I ever like to have plum trees!

May 24, 2004 - Finally the beds are seeded. Wall'0'Water sleeves protect tender cucumbers and zucchini. One bed contains various lettuce and bok choy. There are pole beans, beets, carrots, spinach, and green onions in the other beds. And this year I'm making a serious attempt at developing a cutting garden. Seeded in four new raised beds are zinnias, gladiolas, snapdragons, carnations, balsam, statice, pansies, bachelor buttons, morning glories, sweetpeas, and cardinal climber.

June 7, 2004 - Finally the pond is ready to go. It was a lot of work cleaning out the bottom and restacking the rocks. Next year, I'm not chasing after the fish that hide in the rocks. The one's I rescued before it froze all died anyway a couple of days after I brought them inside and placed them in the aquarium.

June 6, 2004 - The front shade garden. Only dappled sun shines through the canopy of birch, elm and spruce boughs. Over the last three years, violets, ferns, forget-me-nots, astilbe, bleeding hearts, and periwinkle have established themselves in this darker corner of the front yard.

June 6, 2004 - Long gone is the grass that once occupied the front lawn. After rototilling in the spring, I transplanted sprigs of Bishop's goutweed or snow-on-the-mountain as it's also called. It didn't take long to establish. Since it will be another year before it completely covers the dirt, I also seeded the area with nasturtiums, double Shirley poppies, night scented stocks and forget-me-nots.

June 6, 2004 - Among the earliest flowers to bloom in the garden are the sweet rockets, a heritage flower. These are biennials which seed themselves profusely around the garden. Also blooming in the background is a bush covered in single yellow roses.

June 6, 2004 - Eveyln, my sweet Evelyn rose. This English rose bred by David Austin has a strong, lemony fragrance. After trying to track one down for four years, I finally scored two Eveyln rosebushes this spring.

June 6, 2004 - I couldn't resist this climber with its hanging clusters of deep red roses. It's called "Don Juan". In the fall I will have to dig it out of the ground, lay it flat and bury it with soil to ensure it survives the winter.