Verdant

During the third week of February MacGyver bought some peat pots and dirt, and we spent a Sunday starting seeds for FutureGarden. We planted three kinds of tomato, two kinds of basil, morning glories, sunflowers, and rainbow bell peppers. We also transplanted my Valentine's berry bushes out of their sawdust-filled baggies into much larger pots of dirt. Last week we bought corn and snow peas to sow directly into the garden, and I started some watermelon and pumpkin seeds in another batch of peat pots. There wasn't enough room on the table, so I propped up the lid of a plastic tote and placed the watermelon pots on it. Every few hours I move the lid back into the sun.

Lately I've been busy thinning the tomatoes, basil, and sunflowers because they're running out or room. The tomatoes and basil even smell like grown-ups, I brush the leaves with my fingertips to smell summer. The peppers took their sweet time, as of this morning there were 13 seedlings. I keep yelling at the watermelons to grow but no one has poked up yet, every night I go to bed hoping to see a change in the morning. The homebuilders used clay from our yard to make the bricks for the foundation. When MacGyver excavated the northwest corner he saved those bricks, and he's now using them to build raised beds in our north yard for berries. The south yard will be tilled for vegetables.

I feel like we've taken on more than I can handle, but at the same time I think of how much more I'll plant next season if this year goes well. Everything just seems so possible in March.