Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, how do you get your dang garden to grow like that?

Mother Nature has finally had mercy on us. We spent a glorious 70 degree day outside today. It was downright hard to believe after having 8 inches of snow just 4 days ago. But we took full advantage of it. We spent the afternoon on the trampoline, doing some weeding and finally getting our seeds planted for our garden. We will let them germinate inside for several weeks and then transplant them into our garden. Do I sound like I know what I'm doing? Hah, fooled ya. I know nothin' about gardens. I have the blackest thumbs you've ever seen.




We've done a garden for a couple of years now, but I don't seem to be learning much. Really, I just plant some stuff, cast a spell or two and hope for the best. I do seem to have really good luck with tomatoes, peppers and herbs. In fact, I've been pretty successful with my salsa garden. But that's about it. My lettuce is bitter. My carrots don't grow deeper than 2 inches into the ground. My corn looks like a bad set of dentures. We only got one good cantaloupe last year. And the fact that no one will help me weed really does not add to the good karma I need surrounding my garden. I hate weeding. No wait. I love weeding. No wait. I hate the thought of weeding, but once I start, I can't stop! My OCD kicks in and I can't quit till every last stinking weed is out. And then I get a little huffy cuz' everyone else fizzled out after 10 minutes and I spent the better part of my Saturday weeding, just to produce some bitter lettuce and 2 inch carrots!! But does that stop me? Heck no! Plant, I will! (And who likes carrots, anyway?)




This year we're taking a slightly different approach. The kids each picked their own vegetable to plant, water, weed, talk to, and tuck in at night. Yeah, they're all jazzed about it now, but wait until Mom's yanking them out of bed this summer to get to the weeding before the sun fries us all.



Regardless, we had a great time today, planting our seeds with the hope of a bounty of delicious things to eat this summer. It could happen! Now, if I could just find those darn seed packets of silver bells and cockle shells...