A Pooka's Paradise

I ignored the blighted weakly tomato after moving it from a pot to the ground.

Today I found a tomato on it, and the plant is green again. Hurrah for ignoring it!

I need to remember to not garden when I'm in pain, though. Between my back, the bad flare-up, and twisting my ankle, I wasn't quite delicate enough when working with the green beans. I bought the bamboo arches for stakes to train the vines on, and I snapped one of the vines in the process. Dammit. I'm feeling very badly about this.

The Zucchini That Ate Cincinnati has leaves almost as large as my husband's ego.

Radishes will be pulled up tomorrow. Okra is getting ready to start setting fruit. Squashes look to be blooming soon. Zucchini still dropping all blossoms. Dammit. Grr.

The seeds that Thing 2 and I planted LAST SUNDAY are going wild. The new radishes are almost ready to replace the ones we'll be pulling, though I'm worrying about the heat and actually considering putting them in large leftover plastic pots and keeping them cooler up on the patio. The pots are more than large enough to hold a single radish plant, and I'd have better atmosphere control over them that way.

Green beans planted last Sunday are not only sprouted, but opening leaves. Less than a week. Man, this is just wild.

And once again, EVERY SINGLE SEED SPROUTED! Crap garden soil, and tada.

Still waiting for the Four O'Clocks to sprout.

Need to go work on the wisteria tomorrow and get it set to really start climbing. Fighting whatever those #*$&#*$& vines are nearby is making me crazy. They're trying to crowd out the two rosebushes that still aren't doing anything. I've really considered digging them up and moving them into the backyard where I can keep a better eye on them.

My pumpkins have taken over the weeding job for me. It's so funny! Those curly little pigtail pumpkin vines are wrapping around anything nearby, and are pulling shakier weeds right out of the ground with them.

I'm about to have some very cross words with the mosquitos in my back yard, oh yes. They're AWFUL! Grr, itch itch itch.

Nicotiana now tucked gently in with the Veronica Salvia, Hummingbird pink and a deep deep deep rose to go with the blue-purple Veronica. I moved the large tomato plant away from the Nicotiana and have that flowerbed now bordered by strawberry and zinnia pots.

Blackeyed Susan vines now twining their way up a trellis between my patio and the fence that I can't plant along. Stupid phone company. Anyway, the Susan vines are delicate and lovely, and a Maid of Orleans jasmine that isn't a climber completes the view that direction, set a bit behind it. They're far enough away that we shouldn't have to worry about bees on the porch, and right where the breeze will catch and carry the scent to us.

The trellis is also positioned so that once the vines fill out, we should have a bit of filtered sun on the patio.

Mini-petunias worked into the thinning spots where some of the early ones decided there wasn't enough sun and quit on me. Not my fault, the sun just *vanished* for a good three days and only reappeared after Tornado Watch winds ripped the clouds away. Nice mini that is a varigated salmon colour, and utterly lovely.

Peach Vincas tucked into a spot where hopefully they'll decide to be self-seeders and spread. I grew up with the pinks and whites all in front of the house (though us Suthun folk call em periwinkles), and once they settled in, they STAYED in, and even after my parents finally tried to get rid of them, long after I moved out, they'd still pop up every spring -- and still do, 30 years later.

Picked my strawberry today. (laugh) You try splitting one with everyone in the house.

I'm tired, but it's a good tired. In a way, it makes up for the hellish week I've had.

Being out there among the plants, watching the bees and butterflies (and the blue jay that gets SO riled up when we rake pine needles from under His Personal Tree) and Batman the squirrel and daddy Attila and just listening to the birds and the windchimes can do more for calm serenity than any bottle of antidepressants ever could.

All I need is land to till, fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, and the seeds of imagination to make the world my own.

Pull up a chair and sit a while.