The Garden

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

-- Abraham Lincoln

I think every single potato start I planted has come up. It's more than a dozen and I'll have to give some away I think. We planted Russian Banana potatoes, All Blue, and Red Thumb and I am so excited to have them grow! I choose the blue and red varieties specifically because they stay colored during cooking. So many veggies don't :( Like the purple green beans I planted last year. Very disappointing.

Last night I did my first real weeding of the season. I got most of the side bed done and I'm going to put corn seedlings in tonight. I'd love to get corn this year! That bed will also have canteloupe in it, and maybe watermelon if I can find a decent seedless start. I got part of bed #1 done as well, which is going to have acorn & yellow crook neck squash, zucchini, and pumpkins, with peas at the ends on trellises. Next the herb bed needs to be gotten together because I have some starts to go in it and I will dig up the rosemary from the front yard to put there too.

Finally, I am avoiding bed #3 because it will be an absolute monster this year. It thinks it's part of the Amazon jungle and has overgrown itself to appropriate proportions. Everything I palnted in it is dried up, but it managed to find enough recruits to scare me away so far this year. That is where the tomatoes and peppers are going (with beans on the ends) though so I need to get started. I also have a bare space in the ground, rather large, where a tree got removed this year, so I am filling it with caulifloower, broccoli and brussels sprouts. I figure if they don't survive, I won't fall apart, so they get the crummy spot :)

I am happy to be out in the earth again, out doing somehting really useful. It's not that I adore the actual work of gardening, or the science of it (I am a stick it in the ground and pray sort of person), but I love both the instant and faith-demanding results. And I learn a lot in my garden, and I get really great ideas about the rest of my life while I am at it. The garden, while not restful, is meditative for me.

"When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, There is always the garden."

-- Minnie Aumonier