A New Adventure

Did you ever have something that you were just too intimidated to try? For me it was vegetable gardening. Somehow, as my friends either dug in and grew loads of salsa gardens or tentatively began with an herb garden, I kept buying those tasteless substitutes at the store. Now that they were all up to speed, I felt like I couldn't catch up with everyone else, and so chose to not even try. My mother-in-law has a green thumb, and years ago helped me get started on some perennial gardens. Over the years she has visited enough to help begin, tame, and begin again at new homes. She has saved those same gardens from going to ruin....at three homes. If she didn't get out there and help me, it was the shame of what they look like that had me cleaning even my garden before her spring visit. This year, 5 kids kept her so busy she didn't get to even see the gardens. This was somewhat planned. It's a good thing, because the tree saplings are trying to take over one bed. I need to get on it before I have a forest. But we never tackled veggies together. I think she figured out this is not where my strengths lay. And the longer I didn't try it, the more intimidated by it all I became, so I never tried it on my own.

However, this is my year. For a lot of things: blogging, uploading pictures, and in general bringing my computer skills up to the 21st century (even my 11 year old asked me for help on the computer today!); and now starting a small vegetable garden. Today I picked up 5 tomato plants for a buck at a garage sale. The motivation has finally struck. So Cents and I headed out into the yard where the mosquitoes are thick. Can you see the little bit of blue on my hip? That's my Off clip-on deal in action and it worked pretty well. Cents loves tomatoes, and she is my only hope of remembering to water those puppies. Now I would love some basic, doable advice for growing tomatoes. I staked em, but I don't have chicken wire yet. I did my old trick of putting some hair clipped from Mite tonight on them. I'm hoping that will be enough to keep the bunnies away for awhile. Shoot, I should have taken his picture too. Maybe tomorrow I can add that one.