Day 13, May 31, 2010

I moved to Noank, Connecticut in 1965. It's a tiny peninsula, with an arguably quirky, authentic personality. Noank cuts off, symbolically, from modern society by a set of train tracks. The village is famous, not only for the rumored fact that Gypsy Rose Lee dove stark naked, into The Mystic River, from the fabled lounge dock of the original Skipper's Dock, but more reliably for its Memorial Day Parade. Noank's parade has been held continuously since 1875.

Logically, I thought it important to share this historical phenomenon with Debbie. We took the morning off, watched the parade and ate a hamburger in the park, compliments of The Fire District.

The garden is Now filling up, but the biggest planting task remains. After the parade, we drive out to the farm determined to plant the majority of our seed crop. These are the plants that will fill the majority of the space: Pumpkins, Corn and Bush Beans.

I'm finding space for the remaining cucumber seedlings. Debbie's preparing an area for the pumpkins. "Hey! Looks like you have a row to hoe," I yell across the field.

"You need a garden hoe!" Debbie answers. "Guess I'm it."

I grab two large plastic envelopes of pumpkin seed, "Howdens" and "Jack-o-lantern," mix them together, and plant five rows, about 70' feet each. Along the way, we dig out a huge rock, and it becomes the corner stone marker of the pumpkin patch.

Afterwards, we plant the Blue Lake Bush Beans. An enormous quantity. "Amazing," I think. After nearly twenty years of distributing Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, I can't help thinking that the bush bean seeds look exactly like a Jelly Belly coconut jelly bean. I wonder if I should be saving some of the seed for a later crop. "Heck, I can order more if we sell all of these," I reason.

It's getting dry, so we water the rows a bit before covering them. Then we water the tops of the rows, likely only holding the dust down.

I'm praying all along, that a heavy rain will come and soften the seeds further towards their expected germination.

Two down. Corn to go! Right on schedule for June 1st!

Memorial Day? I'll never forget this one, as the day that our garden takes its final shape.

Time to research cutting beds. I think our customers will like flowers, as well! If not, we will.