I can’t believe it’s already the season to start planting warm weather crops!  When I went out to look at the raised garden beds that we built last year, I was surprised to see that they’re almost all full!  I didn’t feel like we planted too much earlier in the season, but I guess it’s more than I thought.  Coming up we have strawberries, garlic, leeks, onions, lettuce, peas, and beets.  We also have oregano and sage that self sowed from last year, as well as several tomato plants that self sowed.  (I found it very ironic that with all my efforts at starting seeds inside, so many didn’t grow, but these took care of themselves outside in the unhospitable cold.)  The mint in a separate garden box on the deck is also coming up from last year on its own.  We also noticed a few squash plants that started growing in the lasagna beds (after I pulled a couple up, thinking they were weeds) – they must have been in compost that wasn’t fully composted; we came to the realization it wasn’t a weed in time to leave one where it was growing. 

This morning I was up nice and early, so after preparing Amish oatmeal for breakfast and popping it into the oven, I thought it would be a good time to transplant the tomato plants we started from seed into the garden.  Yesterday my father in law brought over some extra starts he had that he didn’t need, which was perfect because we started two batches of tomato seeds, and of the second batch only one sprouted.  I wanted more plants than I had, and as if he read my mind, my wish was granted!  (He’s never offered me plant starts before.)

A couple of my girls joined me in the yard after they finished davening, and a short time later the three youngest boys came out, too.  I know that people say that gardening with very young children is wonderful, but honestly, that’s only if you’re not trying to get something done.  🙂  My ds20 months promptly trampled two of the plants we had just put in – he needed someone to be with him all the time to keep him out of where he wasn’t supposed to be.  For it to be fun for both of us, I’d have to be involved with him the whole time and actively directing him.  But my ds3 was a good age to be helpful – he helped me pull weeds and then water some plants.   And ds6 also did a lot of watering. 

The tomato seeds that I started were heirloom and open pollinated – I chose the varieties that I did because I liked their names.  I know, very unscientific.  They are:

• king pineapple
• watermelon beefsteak
• black cherry
• Japanese golden pear

Can you tell I was vicariously satisfying my desire to grow fruit by ordering these tomato seeds?  So far, we have 23 transplants in, 8 left to go.  A bit less than half are from my father in law, and I assume his are hybrid seeds.  Now I need to get squash, melon, and cucumber seeds in.  Last year our most successful plant was butternut squash, from a seed taken from a squash we bought at the store and ate.  It was a surprise that it came up at all! 

When it was time to go in for breakfast over an hour later, we discovered that I had turned on the fleishig oven instead of the milchig oven so breakfast wasn’t ready on time after all.  If I had been inside I would have realized that pretty quickly, but I wasn’t and I didn’t, so breakfast happened late.  Very late.   But I used the time to do some reading earlier in the day rather than later with my ds6 and dd8 – the newest readaloud we’re doing in the mornings for ds is Doctor Dolittle.  We recently finished Dominic, by William Steig (author of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble), which had suprisingly challenging vocabulary, but it was so fun that there was no intimidation factor.  Even though they each get their own read aloud time with me, they like listening to the other’s books.  We also finished dd’s book at the same time we finished Dominic – now we’re starting the next book in the Little House series, The Long Winter.  I love that book. 

While we were outside, we cut up the scavenged carpeting that a neighbor was discarding a couple of days ago to use on the path between the lasagna beds.  I read that suggestion somewhere, to keep the weeds down.  Though there was loads of carpet being given away, I didn’t want to get too much and have to deal with the extra.  And it turns out that I should have gotten four rolls instead of one, because I really don’t have enough – this covered 2/3 of one row.  Unfortunately, garbage pick up was the next day so I can’t get any more from them.  Oh, well.  But at least it’s done and not taking up space in the garage, and will help for the path that it’s on!

All in all, a nice way to start the day!

Avivah