I spent the day today reading, writing and working in the garden, with the exception of an excursion to piano lessons. I love what I hear right now; Monet practicing his piece in earnest!
Working in the garden was both a delight and a chore. Our new lawn is a jungle, so I'm working on it bit by bit as time and money allow. My first project this spring has been a longtime goal. I finally have, after many years of dreaming about, planning for and envisioning it, a kitchen garden. It's very humble and just beginning, but it's there, the herb seedlings holding their own in this questionable Ohio spring coolness where it's late enough in the growing season to make me feel guilty that I don't have my vegetables planted, but cool enough that I'm relieved of my guilt. And that's a good thing.
Herbs are my favorite things to grow. I remember the first time I took a whiff of a pineapple sage leaf and thought, "Oh my gosh! It smells just like pineapple!" I remember walking through this huge greenhouse full of the most wonderful herbs, discovering a new world, testing the scent of each scented geranium--orange, peppermint, pineapple, cinnamon, nutmeg, rose, lemon and lime--adoring the tags above each table imploring me to "please touch!" (If you aren't familiar with scented geraniums, read this and learn!) I remember toting home several flats of my new passion, tearing out all of my existing flower beds (planted by the home's previous owner and not my style) and filling them with mints, lemon balms, lavender, lamb's ear, echinacea, chives, fennel, dill, nasturtiums and sweet-faced Johnny Jump-Ups. I kept detailed records of my growing garden, which wasn't exactly a kitchen garden, because it was in my front yard, an olfactory greeting for all who entered into my small city home, but I definitely used much of its harvest in the kitchen.
But now, I have a country home, and when we designed the floor plan, we allowed for an exterior door from the kitchen which steps onto the porch which steps onto the lawn which is bordered by--you guessed it--my new kitchen garden.
I placed the root-bound plants into the ground today, wondering how a greenhouse can have plants that are already root-bound so early in the growing season. The marjoram, cilantro, parsley, golden oregano, dill, columnar basil and rosemary were placed carefully in turn, earning their positions according to the frequency with which I use them, the cilantro and marjoram closer to the door, the dill and parsley further back. And at the furthest edge, grape tomatoes, Marglobe tomatoes and Early Girls, kept company by three jalapeno pepper plants. I'm looking forward to a pesto, bruschetta and salsa summer!
Do you grow herbs? If not, you should definitely give it a shot! They're forgiving, many are very hardy, and a lot of them can be grown in pots on your porch or sunny windowsill. It's always encouraging to me to see the tiny spikes of garlic chives popping through the cold ground early in the Spring. Those chives are my crocuses!
Next project: clear out my neglected tea garden and deep beds. The catnip and mints (and weeds, of course) there have all but taken over since I spent most of last summer finishing the interior of our house.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with gardener's gloved fingers!
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