Gardening!

So, I've been thinking about gardening lately. It's hard not to when the only things I planted this year were bulbs....and now they're all gone! Ok, that's not quite true. I plated some herbs (I already killed the basil!), some jasmine (smells AMAZING!), and a lilac bush (I think it died while I was on vacation.).

On Sunday, we had a lesson about how we should live "providently." Put simply, that means that you are, in some way, self sufficient. You are not in debt, you do not live above your means, you know how to feed your family without visiting the grocery store every week. We even got a check list to see how we were doing on the "provident living" scale. I fell short in a few areas. No, I do not know how to cook with whole wheat kernels. No, I do not make my family's bread. (I don't think banana bread counts!) I'm not positive I could sew clothes for my family. Hmm...and no, I don't eat what comes out of my garden. At this point, the only edible thing there is herbs - lavender, peppermint, parsley and chives. Is that what they were talking about? At least my cracked wheat will be well seasoned!

Trying to rectify this situation, I visited my local nursery for some seeds yesterday. ANYONE can grow zucchini, right? Apparently, yes, I was right - they were all sold out of zucchini seeds. However, they did have a hybrid zucchini. It makes little round zucchini that look like mottled tennis balls. Hey, a zucc's a zucc. Will and I put Teah to bed and went outside to get to work.

First, we did the easy stuff. I had picked up a bag of potting soil and we re-potted our little army of kitchen plants. I have a little guy that I named Hector. He was supposed to keep me company at my last office job. He did a very good job of it, too! Hector has a nice, new pot now. Happy Hector!

Then, to the harder job. We have a little strip of dirt on the side of the yard that we had pulled some larger shrubs out of and never replanted. In go the zucchini seeds! I watered it well, and then Will went in to inspect my work. I don't know what it is about our soil, but it doesn't soak up water! I think it's pure clay. At any rate, only the top 1/8" of the soil was wet. The seeds would never germinate that way! We dug all the seeds back up and mixed in potting soil. Yes, not ideal for mixing into outside gardens, but...at least it would hold water! We replanted our little seeds and called it a good days work. Now, I just need to remember to check them every day and maybe we'll get something to grow! Provident Living, here we come.