Remember when I said that returning to work was messing with my mind? It was almost all I could think about from mid-March until the day I went back. The fear and uncertainty loomed and, I now realize, paralyzed me from doing many things I want to do.
One of which was to actually PLANT MY GARDEN.
I know. I’m embarrassed to admit that.
I even wrote about the potato towers, partly in hopes that it would “guilt” me in to starting my other seeds.
Apparently fear and uncertainty trumps guilt in the realm of irrational neurosis. Who knew?
However, since I returned from my first trip back to work, I’m pleased to report that I’ve planted all the seeds that I’m going to plant this summer! The emotional paralysis has been lifted! Thank you, God!
Sad to say, though, that when I started actually planting my seeds, I realized I’d sort of blown it with some of the things I’d intended to grow. My inattention to gardening (thanks to my obsession with work) means I forgot that some of the things needed to be started while it was still cold, and others are meant to be planted later in summer.
Oh, well. I’ve still got a pretty decent garden planted!
In the end, I decided to go ahead and start my tomatos late, simply because ANY tomatos is a good thing for my household. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, well, now I’ll know better. So the tomato seeds are started.
In my one raised bed, I planted three rows of carrots, with the intention to plant more every two weeks to ensure a longer harvesting season. (They sent me the wrong ones; I ordered the Kuroda Long 8 Carrot and they sent me Little Fingers. I decided not to mess with an exchange and just went with it.)
I also planted swiss chard and collard greens.
Against the backside of our porch, I planted my trellising plants: pole beans, cucumbers, and the loofahs.
I’ll plant the tomatos in the front flower bed when they’re big enough, and the stevia plants I started will be transplanted to containers so I can move them inside next winter for a nice, long life.
The strawberries were a surprise to me; turns out, they grow in a bush form! And the seeds are notoriously tough to get started. So I’m going to figure out how to germinate them on a paper towel before planting, which is what I’ve read is the best way to ensure you get a bush from a seed. They’ll go on the least sunny side of our house.
Apparently they need good sun – but not too much! Everyone that reported success with these strawberries said they had a decent bit of shade during the day. The northwest side of our house will be ideal for that…once I clean out that flower bed. (I never intended to plant anything there because it has the worst sunlight of any of my flower beds. Oops.)
So the garden has started, and while it is less than perfect timing I did manage to do ONE thing right: I got it all in the ground at least 24 hours before we are expected to get a nice day of rain.
Oh, and the potatos are doing beautifully! They’ve all taken and started growing nice little green tufts that are about 4 inches tall already.
Thank goodness I did ONE thing right so far with my garden!
I’m going to keep this one short today. Yesterday sort of whooped my heinie!
The plan for the day was to leave for a goat milk run at 9:00 a.m. so I could make a doctors appointment at 1:00 p.m. Mom agreed to come help keep the boys entertained while I was with the doctor, and showed up right on time. I, however, had overslept and was not ready to go! We still could have fulfilled our plans, but Mom and I got LOST on the way to Lois!
Yes, I got lost within 5 miles of my house. I know.
We took a shortcut, you see. One that was easy to follow coming FROM Lois, but looked very different going the other direction. We veered left when we should have veered right, and wound up lost on multiple little Arkansas dirt roads with no cell phone coverage most of the way.
It took us 40 minutes to find our way back to my house, at which time it was too late to get the milk and get back before the doctors appointment.
So we decided to fly a kite. We had some time to kill before we needed to leave for the doctors.
When I got the kite in the air and was letting the string out, the spinning plastic wheel went nuts and kept hitting my index finger, eventually removing a fair chunk of my flesh.
When I went inside to clean and doctor the wound, Mom took over kite flying with Jed. The wind gusted pretty hard, I suppose, and yanked the kite out of Jed’s hand! I heard Mom yell that we had to go chase the kite as I was putting on my band-aid.
I ran outside and could see the kite had gotten stuck in some trees just on the other side of our property line.
I hopped the fence and trudged through a field to see if I could rescue the kite, and was not looking where I was going.
In case you don’t know, wearing shorts while walking through thigh-high unknown weeds isn’t a wise thing to do! Brambles sliced into my legs, and I now have many long, bleeding cuts on my left leg and a few non-bleeding scrapes on my right.
After cleaning my next set of wounds, we headed to the doctors office. As soon as that was done, we left for the goat milk run. That went well enough, but on the drive back we stopped for ice to keep the goat milk cold in the chest. Getting out of the car, I lost my balance and bumped in to the side mirror of my car…which promptly scraped a decent slice off my shoulder!
Getting lost in the morning threw my evening plans off, so I was still planting the garden at 8:00 p.m.
Stick a fork in me; I’m done!
Oh, and Day 2 of banana went exceptionally well!
Zac ate the two bananas I was planning on him eating, then went to the fruit bowl, grabbed another banana and brought it to me to peel! I relented and allowed him the third, but said no when he brought me a fourth banana after he wolfed that one down.
Once again, he’s showing developmental boosts from the new food; we finally got to listen to him make noise just to make noise in the car today!
You know how babies often will just make random noises when they’re strapped in the car seat? Their way of experimenting with their voice and learning what sounds they can make is an early step towards talking. Zac has never done that before. Ever.
But he did it today! For all four hours of the car ride, no less!
His one poopy diaper of the day was loose, but no mucous or blood. Fingers crossed day 3 goes just as well!
(Okay, so it wasn’t really short. Oh well.)
So tell me: have you had a day where it seems you can’t move without obtaining at least a slight injury? (I’d feel a lot better about yesterday if I knew I wasn’t alone!)
How is your garden doing now?
