The garden

Finally got around to planting the garden, or at least half of it. Still have to plant the tomato plants, the hot pepper plant, and the two mint plants that just smelled too good not to buy. The green and red peppers, zucchini and squash are planted.  I wish we'd gotten cucumber. My favorite thing about last year's garden was going out to the garden, plucking a cucumber, and eating it for lunch with a little salt. I suppose I could go buy a cucumber plant and plant it with the tomatoes tomorrow.

I love the dirt. It smells so good and fresh and makes such lovely vegetables. I love starting with a patch of weeds and finishing with smooth, rich mounds of dirt and one or two excited little plants popping out of each one. I love hitting the ground so many times that my arms become numb. I love when it rains and makes the ground so soft so that I can pull up the big, fat weeds- roots and all- with minimal effort. I love the calluses on my fingers and the sunburn on my shoulders, and feeling sweaty and grimy and with lots of dead bug bodies stuck to me (oh wait, I DON'T love that part). I love showering after a lot of hard work and feeling so good, and looking out the window to see the garden. I loved the raspberry bush we used to have but has since expired due to the tree that grew too tall and provided too much shade and not enough sunlight. I loved picking raspberries and eating them with a little ice cream. I loved pulling up carrots and brushing them off and eating them right out of the ground. A store bought carrot simply does not taste as good as one that came from the backyard.