Welcome to My Garden

Welcome to my new blog. I will be sharing my garden adventures past and present with anyone who bothers to read. It not just about the growing. It is about the trial and error, the abundant wildlife, the neighbors, the weather, and the things that go on in my head while I garden.

It happened again today. That weird thing. A woman came riding by on her bicycle while I was out gardening I thought that she had just ridden on by, but a moment later there she was, off her bicycle and standing at the edge of the patio telling my how much she loves my house and garden. She said that the whole reason she chose this route through the city was so that she could come by here often. I am always a bit startled by how effusively people compliment my garden and that they will go out of their way to tell me. I thanked her as best I could. I am never quite certain how to respond, but I try to be open, friendly, and gracious. I do love that they find as much pleasure is seeing it as I do in creating it.

Spring is unnervingly early this year. It has already been over 80 degrees, everything is growing and in bloom weeks ahead of schedule. The Chinese Trees of Heaven are leafing out more than a month ahead of normal. The main concern behind this is that we could suddenly still have a huge snowstorm that would damage the plants. An early heavy snow last October already decimated the trees around here.

My butt is freezing right now from sitting on the front patio working on the pots that I will be planting in soon. I am amending the soil with sheep manure and mushroom compost. I have already planted beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes, carrots, red cabbage and cilantro. Still so much to do. I have onion sets, garlic sets and seed potatoes for planting in the raised beds. I will also plant cauliflower in with the potatoes since they are supposed to make good companions.

I gave up and came inside when Naomi came and told me it was time to go inside for a nap. She loves the garden and spends as much time as possible there. She loves it even more when I am out there working. The only thing better than that is when one of the neighbors stops by to chat while I am working there. She will also will waylay strangers in the street just to say hi.

In my head today: Ideas for the novel I plan to write in November for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) later this year. It feels like an awesome idea that has a lot to do with my garden. Not telling what the actual idea is, but it will be funny. And it will be unlike the novel I wrote last year, which I am still procrastinating about getting edited and rewritten. But now it is spring and Mother Nature beckons.