Finally a gardening post

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A wee sunflower newly placed in the garden!

But I need to preface it with the notion that I feel like I'm cheating. Yet I've put a number of plants in the ground and in planters, so that counts, right? And they are live plants, lol, so yeah, I've kind of found my outdoors mojo, even during a mostly cloud-filled week.

Boysenberry plant that I started last year from a tiny plug; it's the berry of my childhood and doing well.

So why do I feel as though I've skipped many steps? Well, last year I started SO MANY PLANTS FROM SEED. Oh my goodness, I was a seed-starting fool last spring. It was our first full year at this house and with little rain and plentiful if not cold sun, I went nuts for veg and flowers. Not all of it did well, due to hungry deer and other critters and meh soil, as well as our mild summer weather. Did I burn myself out, perhaps. Our very wet and cold winter hampered my efforts this spring, as well as malaise from grief. Yet I'm making up for it now; two pumpkins, a cantaloupe, petunias, nasturtiums, and just as of this morning the last three of six sunflowers. And in a shaded planter I have three coleus, six impatiens, a couple of petunias, and a trailing fuchsia that joins a geranium my husband put in.

Strawberries!

Now it's only mid-May, plenty of time for other items or even some seed scattering if I feel so inclined. But honestly I'm thrilled to have planted what is so far doing well. I had been pretty resolute that I wasn't going to do anything. My hubby was choosing plants, green beans and snap peas, marigolds too. Maybe I've already yakked about this. Anyway, suddenly I'm into growing plants. Not growing plants from seeds, just putting plants in the ground and watching them get bigger. That's gardening for me this year.

Snap peas thriving amid the blackberry vines.

I'm trying to not feel guilty about the seeds I bought a few months ago; they weren't expensive, so that helps. Yet I meant to do something with them. And as I said, perhaps I might. But I have plenty of tasks already lined up; books to write and lots to sew. This year might not be all about the garden for me. However observing living plants increase in size is an amazing joy. I can't wait to see the sunflowers develop, and the strawberries are producing prolifically!

Baby snap pea

So yeah, I'm gardening. I'm grateful to have the desire. I'll be over the freakin' moon to get a pumpkin or cantaloupe. We'll see how it goes.

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