I was moving at a the pace of an elderly snail by the time I started pulling the sprinkler to the new area to water in the seeds, but the new bed is cleared and planted! I would have trudged through finishing up the potato bed and planting something there too today, but a) I want to make darn sure those fire ants are dead, dead, dead and b) I don’t know what to plant there. Probably the pole beans. It’d be a good place for them at the back of the garden so they won’t shade anything else.

Planted today: three okra (my own saved seeds), two lemon cucumbers and three bush cucumbers (yes, trying them one more year), twelve walking onions, and an assortment of Calendula (marigolds) and Nasturtium (edible florals). Once these are well established, I’ll be filling in the nooks and crannies in between them with carrots, radishes, and scallions. Lots of good stuff!

I have to admit that as soon as I turned the sprinkler on and stood back and looked over my garden empire, I found myself smiling and happy. There’s still some work to be done out there before I declare the garden totally up and running for the season, but it looks so much better out there already. I think later I might haul the lounge chair pad out to the lounge chair and sit and watch my plants grow for a while. Why, I might even enjoy a fruity cocktail too! It’s amazing what some weeding and ant killing can do to improve my state of mind about my garden. I’m no longer depressed about it! I can’t wait to be spending hours and hours out there again!

But not today and likely not until next week. I am so damn tired. Not all over tired, but my shoulders, arms, and hands have declared themselves on vacation until Monday. Even typing feels impossible. It’s a good tired though and not a sore tired, proof of a few days of honest hard work. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger … or at least gets us back into shape after an inactive winter.

I think I’ll go eat my leftovers from last night’s dinner and flip through my gardening catalogs. I need to think about some other things to plant, seeing as soon the last of the winter veggies will be going away, and that leaves me with almost an entire bed to fill. Woo hoo! New stuff to try!