The Zen of starting a vegetable garden

I can't believe how long it's been since I've done a proper post here...I guess it's a sign that I'm keeping fairly busy offline. Anyway, here's a quick mini update on some interesting topics as well as my slightly more in-depth thoughts about becoming an organic veggie farmer.

Mini updates:

1. How did you do with your Project Scheduling and Management class, Denise? Glad you asked...I got an A+. Not just an A, but an A+. (Yay me!) I'm starting Project Management Essentials (supposed to be the prerequisite for the class I just finished) on April 16th, so the adventure begins again.

2. How are you doing on your massive To-Do list before TCB comes home? Um, next question. No, it's not really THAT bad, but I have de-prioritized these tasks in favor of spending time with my mom last weekend, doing laundry (and gardening) this weekend, and trying to kick butt at work. I am signed up for a neighborhood garage sale next weekend, so we shall see how organized I can get before then!

3. Speaking of work, which project did you choose to work on - comfortable or constantly challenging? As I intimated last we spoke of this topic, I'm working on the challenging project. It's really tough in so many ways because I can't exhale, there is no room to coast, and I'm never more than oversleeping one morning away from disaster, but I have moments of sheer bliss where I am more certain than I've ever been that I AM competent, that I DO know what I'm doing, and that my team IS lucky to have me. Those moments outweigh the occasional panic attacks, so that's a good thing.

OK, so on to the main purpose of today's post: gardening. I would never have guessed how much I would enjoy my vegetable garden. I am SO GRATEFUL to my mom for coming down last weekend and helping me plant everything (see picture). I currently have the following plants in my plot: tomatoes (2), cucumbers (2), bell peppers (3), lettuce (3), squash (2), eggplant (1), swiss chard (1, accidentally picked up by my mother who thought it was beets), green beans (2 bush, 1 pole), strawberries (2), and various marigolds. I've also sowed seeds for corn and carrots. The lettuce is a big draw for Benjamin Bunny and his friends, which is a bummer. The strawberry plants are droopy and sad. And none of it matters because I just love it.

I love obsessively checking how the plants are doing each day. I love calling my mom to consult on how to fix what's going wrong with various plants. I love chatting about how to get the best results from your plot with the rare other community gardener I run into. (Birds get the peas. Bunnies get the lettuce. Soil amendment is a must.) Each day there's some new thing to get excited about...the new flower poised to burst forth on my peper plant, discovering that a long-abandoned plot adjacent to mine is just teeming with dormant strawberry plants reawakening after our recent rains (I've decided to adopt them and am now watering and weeding that plot, too), and the way that the eggplant that looked so sad for two days is starting to pick up. I accept that I'll probably lost 25-30 percent of what I've planted (hello, lettuce?), and I'm OK with that. But seriously, expect lots of veggie pictures in the next two months (or so) while I wait for my payback: harvest and meal preparation.

P.S. I don't have pictures because I'm not cool like Marla with her Igor updates, but you'll have to take my word for how adorable my three kitties are right now. They're all curled up into balls, sleeping, on my bed with me as I write and OMG the cute!!! I might have to go and sleep in the guest room (because I can't sleep with piles of warm fur blocking my access to free space), but it's totally worth it.

P.P.S. TCB and I will need to get a new (king size) bed when he gets home - see my inability to sleep next to furry heat sources, above - and we're torn between two options. TCB wants to get a sleep # bed while I want an environmentally-friendly, Amish-made bed instead. They're roughly the same price and we're both pretty stubborn, so I'm reaching out to my loyal readers...can both of you chime in with your opinion about which bed we should choose, in the comments? You'll be another data point in our - no doubt - fascinating discussions about which bed we'll be sleeping on for the next 30 years (if we don't kill each other before then).

P.P.P.S. I wish I were composing this on my trusty MacBook because then I could use the built in webcam to show you how adorable my baby cats are!