GARDEN DIARIES

The garden is sleeping. It's just that nothing is happening out there. Except potatoes. I'm going to be eating lots of those I think. Did you know where supposed to "hill" potato plants? I had no idea. This weekend, after mowing the yard, I pulled up a few weeds that wandered into the raised bed and hilled my potatoes. I also planted more spinach and Kale, beans and cabbage. These were things I planted earlier, but never really took off or I planted way too early and it just hasn't been warm enough yet for them to do anything. I don't know.

Meanwhile, I keep going back to the old garden. It's slowly becoming this wild bed of herbs, clover and wild strawberries. I love the crazy mess of it which surprises me because I usually prefer everything to be so tidy and ordered. My parsley has gotten so out of control, it's flowering. I have lettuce and chard still coming up in the old garden. This is nice because it supplements what's not coming up in the new garden. I'm really having a hard time adjusting to the idea of Spring. Spring in Oklahoma meant 90 degree temps and tornadoes. Spring here means 70s and 80s with the occasional 90 and tornado threat. Today's high is 62. Last night I watched the weather man aim the camera to what was clearly a funnel cloud and then I heard him say "I'm not sure what we have here". They have no idea what they're doing here when it comes to those things. Any way, I hear my southern friends go on about squash and peppers and I get jealous cause I gots nothin'.

I'm not doing well with patience these days. Could be this is something I need to work on. Something else I need to work on: slug traps. The other evening I sat out in one of the camp chairs waiting for Hooper to do one last nightly patrol of the yard. And as I sat there, I watched a generously sized slug slowly make his way up the side of my raised bed garden and then disappear over the edge of the wall and down into my garden. I let him go, but made a mental note to set up some beer traps. Though to be honest, I'm slightly fascinated by the slugs. They're HUGE and striped and I really hate the idea of killing them, but they're eating my food. At least they'll die drunk and not squirming in pain like that one I poured salt on last year. I will never do that again.