First Planting of 2010

It was beautiful here today, and although I've heard rumors of more snow, I tore open some seed packets and scattered them on raked ground in the early garden. Two kinds of lettuce, some radishes, some onions, and some larkspur. I've never grown onions from seed and have no idea what to expect of them, but I suppose that the learning experience is half the fun of gardening.

It will be nice if these seeds actually produce edible vegetables (though I'll probably have to battle the animals for them), but if nothing else survives, I hope the larkspur does. I love larkspur. For many of my gardening friends, larkspur is nearly invasive, yet I can't get it to survive even one season in my yard. Once, I tried to start some inside, in windowsill greenhouses. I watered and pampered the seeds, but they never sprouted. After weeks of hopeful watching, I gave up and dumped the dirt into my compost heap. Several weeks later, after a cold snap, I found baby larkspur plants growing on the pile, but they did not survive transplanting. So I'm leaving this larkspur where it sprouts, if it sprouts, and I won't be one bit disappointed if it ends up taking over the whole pasture between here and the creek.

Not AGAIN!

Friends and relatives northeast of here who are still contending with Snowmageddon 2010 doubtlessly won't feel a grain of sympathy for me, but I am sick, sick, SICK of snow. This is our third snowfall in a month. Having just thawed out from last week's massive (for us) storm, we awoke this morning to another 3" of snow on the ground, with more to come. The worst part is that nobody told me this one was coming, so I could not even make the obligatory run to the grocery store for milk, bread, and junk food!

The weatherman may have predicted this, but I missed it. You see, The Grandson (age 2) was here for the whole weekend, which meant that the TV was tuned to NickJr for the duration of his visit. NickJr does not do weather forecasts. (One can, however, get tips on sensible winter attire from Moose A. Moose.)

The Grandson must be itching to get in the garden, himself. Yesterday, he discovered the several packs of vegetable seeds that I'd left laying on the kitchen table. I caught him happily stabbing the onion seed package with an ink pen. "What's that noise?" he said, picking up the seed package and shaking it, sowing onion seeds all over the table.