Heat, Herbs and Weekend Gardening Confusion

This weekend left me utterly confused gardening friends.

I woke up Saturday morning at 6:45 and stepped outside to walk down the stone path with my little doggies Bubba and Max.

Brrrrr!!!

I had to go back inside and get on a sweatshirt as a mere t-shirt wouldn’t suffice.

By noon on Saturday, the thermometer inside my greenhouse read 115°.

I was utterly confused.

I knew I needed to move pronto to get my spring plants like radishes, lettuce and kale out of the greenhouse and into the garden. I’d been hesitant to do so because we’ve had some unusual frost warnings of late. But clearly some of my plants desperately needed a new home.

I really should have started them way earlier but we didn’t get the greenhouse until a month or so go and our weather has been just unusually cold for it being this far in the spring.

I transplanted all my little darlings into the garden and gazed unsuredly at them while wiping the sweat off my brow. It was close to 100° and I was MAJOR hot!

I have no idea if they’ll grow if temperatures stay this way?

On a brighter note, however, I cleaned, prepped and planted the herb garden with some improvements.

A friend of mine gave me a brown paper bag full of wine corks. He has an awful job that forces him to taste all kinds of delectable wines. I know, I know, you pity him like I do.

I had seen pictures of garden markers made of corks so I stuck each one onto a wooden skewer and marked it with an herb name on two sides so it was visible from either side of my herb garden.

If you do this method of marking your plants, I’d advise you to paint over the permanent marker with some clear nail polish to keep it from gradually washing off over the summer. We have a sprinkler system so I decided to do this.

I also revised my stepping stone plan through the garden. Previously I’ve had a giant stone right smack in the middle of the herb bed. This has led an interesting and humorous means of me balancing on it when weeding or picking herbs that would probably make you crack up if you happened to see me (especially in flip-flops). Also if you know me, you’ll cringe at that thought. I am probably the only person in history who has sprained both ankles, at the same time.

Yes, that really happened.

I removed the “balancing” rock and instead had Mr. Wonderful cut me some slices of a thick tree branch he had chopped off of his Mom’s tree.

I brushed (4 coats) of some deck wood sealer on both sides of the wood and let them dry overnight.

Now I have a perfect little path with no sprained ankle danger in sight.