Garden Variety

So yesterday ended up being pretty productive after all. Almost as soon as I'd published that last post, Martin decided it was time to dig a garden. My neighbor Tara had given us 13 little bean plants that neede planting pretty much immediately, so Martin started clearing out a little rectangle right where I wanted my garden to be. To our great surprise, the entire area where I'd planned my garden to go was actually a large area of paving stones covered in a thin layer of grass. He shoveled up paving stone after paving stone until he had a nice tall stack on them. And underneath? Deliciously rich potting soil and a few old tags from where the Artman's garden evidently used to grow. We completely lucked out. He planted the little beanies for me. (I played the part of "Project Manager" and told him just what to do while I stood shivering and every two minutes went inside to "check on the baby.") It was a good start to our garden, the beans are cute.

After planting we met up with a fraternity brother of his named Reese. We met him at K. Dee's. He's in town working until Tuesday but really he lives in Evansville. I'd never met him before, but he was a nice guy. Actually I feel a little bad because I was completely unsocial. I spent most of the time talking to Jerry about coffee and gardening. He gave me a few pointers on composting which was nice, and then later on his wife came out and offered me a flat of flowers. Hooray! They are shade flowers which will be sooooooo great for the front of the house. I am most grateful.

And then we came back home for dinner. We cooked ourselves up some delicious steaks and the asparagus from the farmer's market. Yum! Afterward I literally felt like I was dying, so I laid down for about ten minutes and then the feeling magically disappeared and I felt great again. It was really strange.

This morning we went to 7:30 mass and it was such a beautiful morning! Anja took a good morning nap and we had our usual weekend breakfast of eggs and toast, although I had my leftover steak from the night before as well. Martin mowed lawns and then we went up to my mom's house so I could use her sewing machine and *FINISH MY WRAP SKIRT*!!! It looks pretty cute! I screwed up a little bit on the ribbon waistband, but I don't intend to wear any belly shirts this summer, so it probably will never show. Anyway, we had her plants from the New Community School plant sale too, so we drove those up.

Okay, so here's where the funny part comes in. In the afternoon when it was so gorgeous outside, we took Anja out to the yard with us and continued working. Martin continued chopping up overgrown shrubs and trees while I proceeded to plant my... er... twenty-eight tomato plants. I know. I'm not really sure how I did it, but "7 flats of four" didn't seem like very much when I ordered them. And it sure didn't look like much when they were in the flats. But Martin tells me that probably three would've been plenty for us and that I might've overdone it with the number I got. Well. At least I also got eight bell pepper plants and one zucchini plant. With all those tomatoes and maybe some peppers, I can make salsa. I might see if I can buy some onions to plant and then all I'll need to buy is cilantro and that's cheap at the grocery store. In the summertime I eat fresh salsa right out of the bowl with a spoon, it's so delicious. Anyway, here are some pictures.

Now, you can all think how extremely stupid I am for buying 28 tomato plants by accident, but really, I'm just happy to have a garden. I've always wanted one, and this is the first chance I've had to actually make one! And now I have it. I'm really excited. It will look a lot better when we've put the paving stones down around it, and you can't really see in the pictures how beautiful the soil is or how straight the rows are, but I promise, it looks really good and gardenny.

Boy, but what you CAN see in that last picture is how craptastic our house looks from the back! It really looks like a falling down Floridian motel from the back, but it's so unique, how can you not love it?