purlingswine

I have to say that I did not do too much knitting this weekend. A few rows to be sure but in the overall scheme of things, very little.

After complaining that I was not in the mood to plant, I did a lot of planting! I think the truth of the matter was I was not in the mood to go plant shopping. I even managed to plant a bunch of vegetables. This is really saying something ….. when we first bought this house, we put in a really pretty vegetable/herb garden. I had visions of puttering hours away back there, having fabulous fresh produce and even dreamed of a little greenhouse. Somehow that vision became a bit blurred around mid-summer. The heat, the dirt, the bugs …… ugh. This went on for years. I would start the season with stars in my eyes and end it with a bunch of tomatoes rotting on the ground in a weed infested dirt patch that I would completely ignore since it is at the very back of our property and easy to not see.

A few years ago, I began to wonder how many vegetables I could buy at the roadside stand for the amount of money I was shelling out each spring. The last straw came two seasons ago, when I caught my dogs actually eating the tomatoes from the vine! They were wandering amongst the plants having a feast. They did everything but ask me for a little salt to go with. So I let the idea of a veggie garden go, planted one patio tomato in a pot last year and that was that. No more guilt and it was all good.

Fast forward to this weekend …… as I was pulling my little wagon around the local nursery, something came over me and I brought home two types of tomatoes along with a pack of cucumber and zucchini! Was it being surrounded by all the earthy smells? Seeing the sweet little plants in their pots? being amongst gardeners? Who can say, but I thought ‘let me try this one more time’. I did not however spring for the expensive plants, the bigger ones with the heirloom titles in their fancy cardboard boxes. I simply grabbed a cell pack of each. My humble hopes for a veggie garden will only cost a bit of sweat equity. And there were indeed a number of back breaking hours in the garden trying to conquer the weeds and turn in some compost. But things are looking lovely now and I am not quite vowing, but making earnest public intentions to keep after it this summer. And if I keep a careful vigil, perhaps I will beat my mutts to the harvest!

I snapped this picture on the way back from the veggie garden – I never noticed how pretty at sunrise.
(probably because I’ve never been out there at sunrise …… the things I do for the blog!)