Solo gardening

Little Leaf likes to slip out of his swing and car seat

Not the greatest picture...but he is five months old!

No that is not a middle-aged woman,

it is my toddler playing dress up.

I love gardening.

I didn't know I would until about a month ago.

But I do.

Farmer and I learned a little lesson this year. Sometimes we work better on things alone. When Farmer decided to hand over the garden reigns to me, I was able to plan, till, organize, rake, plant and water all by myself (with a little 'help' from Dandelion of course). One evening, he found me digging up the soil by the light of a headlamp. What can I say? The babies were finally asleep and I needed the exercise.

I have an herb garden with cilantro, basil and dill planted and room for parsley. I have a large flower patch with soon-to-bloom irises, five kinds of sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos and persian love-in-a-mist. Soon, I will transplant tomatoes, eggplant, celery and parsley from the greenhouse.

I've had failures already. I had to replant a few rows of lettuce and I've realized that sometimes I'm a little too careless with my seeds. I overplant and they get crowded or untidy. But I'm learning.

We moved our little chicks from the living room to the greenhouse. Eighteen out of twenty have survived and we hope to move them outside as soon as they are big enough to not be able to slip through the chicken fence.

The farm is finally living again!