Garden FAIL!

Well, I worked outside nearly all day yesterday, but did NOT, as promised, get everything weeded and planted.

I can see the lettuce again. Yay! And half of the row of snow peas. That was it for the weeding, and I consider that a spectacular fail. As I said yesterday, I'm an A-to-Z kinda girl, and for me to not finish a row … well, something must be wrong.

After putting 50 tomato plants in the ground (which meant digging 50 holes and dumping compost into each of them first), I realized the best use of my remaining time yesterday afternoon would be to mow the field grass. Because it's going to rain today. Since the grass was already tall enough to bale (kidding! almost!), I knew I had to quit playing in the dirt and start riding around on the mower.

Mowing (and weeding, actually) offer instant gratification – all you have to do is look behind you to see you're making progress. Wouldn't it be great if losing weight were that easy?

Two and a half hours later it was time to go play in the kitchen. The mozzarella and pizza dough were ready, all I had to do was throw some garlic and oregano into some tomato paste and slice the onions and peppers. (I gave up slicing my own pepperoni a long time ago. But my dad always sliced his. Some things just take more time than I'm willing to spend.)

I've decided to let part of the garden lie fallow this year. I need to get a truckload of manure to put down first, then I'll do the cardboard-and-straw mulch trick and I should have much better soil next year. It worked really well for the tomato bed – there are NO weeds in it, and most of the soil was dark and crumbly. Some was still a little claylike, but I stuck the plants in anyway and will hope for the best.

I'm just glad the tomatoes are in the ground and no longer on my porch. I have a few pepper plants to stick in somewhere, and seeds for edamame, Italian green beans, zucchini and cucumbers. That, along with the herb bed, is going to be the extent of my garden for this year.

Looks like another sky-blue pink morning … at least until the rains come.