Those seeds I ordered have not arrived yet. They were put in the mail last Tuesday, according to the email I received. Though I suppose it’s feasible standard mail can take a week to get something from Colorado to Texas, if they don’t come tomorrow, I do believe I will email them about it. There isn’t a huge rush on the ones I ordered, since most of them will be planted directly into the ground, and it’s not time for that yet (and my boxes are done anyway), but still. Anytime I order anything from a company I haven’t done business with before and the sum I have spent is more than $20, I get worried when it doesn’t arrive promptly.

I’m sure I am worrying for nothing, but money doesn’t grow on trees, and those seeds do represent our food for the coming months.

I did finally get all my gardening information together in one notebook and reworked my entire garden plan to take into account plant heights and companion planting rules. I’m pleased with the way it turned out, and now it’s set in stone. I ended up opting to not use sunflowers as trellises. I’m sure it would work, but they were sort of frivolous, and I still wasn’t sure about the root growth pattern. Seemed risky, so best to experiment with that when I have extra space next year to play around with things.

Lin has informed me in no uncertain terms that I should not be pressuring myself as much as I have been about the production rate of my new garden. He says if we only get one really great pot of green beans, and they are the best green beans ever, that would be totally worth it. I, on the other hand, want a bunch of bags of green beans in the freezer and jars of tomatoes in the pantry. He’s right, of course. My garden will be small, and there’s no way it can produce as much as we need, but my perfectionist brain wants it to be astoundingly bountiful and something to be tremendously proud of. I should just think of it as the next step and make sure I don’t suck all the fun out of it. When it stops being fun to do, I will lose interest or become frustrated. After all, last summer’s plants were almost a total failure, and I never really got all that angry or frustrated. I just kept plugging along having fun learning new things and enjoying the outdoors.

It’s been gray and cloudy and damp all day today. I’d really planned to clean up the other Earthbox and plant lettuce today, but days like this leave me entirely unmotivated to do anything much at all. So … I’ve been knitting and playing with cats and reading internet insanity. Probably for the best, because though my allergies are almost under control now (thank you, wet weather and Benadryl), my back still hurts and has limited range of motion. Perhaps not the best time to be lugging around large boxes and bags of dirt and getting all physical. Having radishes and lettuce won’t do me any good, if I am flat on my back on the couch unable to move.

Also, an update on seedlings: Several of the tomato seedlings have died, and I am not surprised. I’ll replant the ones that did and press on. But all the radishes have come up, and the only seeds in the starter pots that haven’t sprouted now are the really old herb seeds I thought I’d plant just to see if they would come up. They apparently aren’t. I already ordered new seeds for those anyway. I pretty much knew seeds that were several years old and came with a Chia herb garden kit would likely not grow. Bonus if they did, and no loss if they didn’t.

Well, back to doing the stupid dishes. As soon as I am done with them, it’ll be time to sit down to watch some gardening shows I recorded and do some more knitting. I’m experimenting with short row shaping, because I have had an idea about how to make a really funky shawl. I think it’s going to work the way I see it in my head! So rare when that happens. :lol: