5.13.2008

Planting has begun

I wish I could report that my seedlings are thriving, but I can't. After the initial springing to life, they became wilty and listless. Nothing I tried revived them and finally, I had to admit they were not going to make it.

I mourned them briefly, then we got to work on the beds. After two trips to the store, we had enough top soil and peat moss to fill one of them. I put down landscaping fabric, Tracy topped that with gravel for drainage, then we added the dirt. About halfway through this process we realized that trying to create and maintain two beds of this size was a little ambitious, and we decided to consolidate our efforts to one bed.

I planted a few seeds and they were promptly "watered" by a day-long rain. Tonight, we bought plants and I put them in - tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, echinacea and lavender. It's satisfying to see the young plants in their neat rows -



- and I'm ready to fill my spray bottle with cayenne pepper "tea" that's supposed to keep the squirrels away. I had a talk with this guy



as he was raiding the bird feeder and he promised to leave the tomatoes alone.

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