Sunday, May 18, 2008

Busy Sunday

We've been scurrying around today trying to get a lot of things done... it's my favorite kind of day, really, when we start with a list and try to get everything done by the end of the day. It's not going to happen, but it's coming along.

The big thing I did today is plant tomatoes. We had tomatoes two years ago, and last year we had sort of a leftover "volunteer" tomato that sprouted on its own and actually generated quite a few cherry tomatoes. This year we thought we'd try some heirloom varieties... I have a dear friend who unfortunately lives too far away for garden overflow, but is greatly into heirlooms... but of course in my usual way I didn't think about this early enough to order from any of the places that he recommends. So I discovered that White Flower Farm has a heirloom package... six varieties of different sorts. Not cheap. I've drooled over their catalogs for years, but never actually ordered anything from them... their packaging is great but I can't say that I'm thrilled with the quality of the plants that arrived. Three of them were a little moldy on the leaves, and the leaves were also pretty sparse on two of them. But ... well, I've planted them in containers and we'll see how it goes. The big thing is that this requires me to actually have my act together for the whole summer and water them every day. This is hard. I am a great starter of things and then something goes wrong and I don't follow through. So I'm making my tomato pledge, here, in writing... I will tend to these things every day this summer. And we'll see how it goes. I mean, at some point in your life, you have to learn some follow-through, don't you? Not everything can be about the enthusiasm of the moment.

(And this "tending to them" is going to have to require putting them in the garage tonight, too... it's unexpectedly cool here at the moment, supposed to get down to 39 tonight.... not a frost, but I don't really want to take any chances.)

What's for dinner? Lamb marinated in garlic and fresh mint, grilled; zucchini sauteed in garlic, and a few lima beans.

No comments: