Ahh, Spring

The other side of spring is days like today.

I was going to repair my roof today from the hail damage but discovered once I got up there that I need some professional help (I placed a call for someone to come out next week to give me an estimate).

So instead, I went to a garden center that just opened up down the road a piece and bought tomatoes, pots and soil.

I never quite found time to build a tomato bed or prepare any part of the yard for them so I decided to plant them in pots. Tomatoes have pretty shallow roots and even large plants don't need large pots. I've got a fantastic west-facing wall that now gets full south and west sun since I had a dead peach tree cut down last fall. I put the pots on the ground along that wall and planted two fancy hybrids and one heirloom (Brandywine, my favorite of the heirloom varieties).

I do have an herb bed that I made last spring. It has two low-growing rosemary plants, two kinds of lavender, and mint that survived the winter (I think mint would survive a nuclear blast). I noticed last week that marigold babies are coming up from seed from the marigolds I planted there last summer. Today I added two oregano and four basil plants. They are tiny now but I have great expectations.

After all of that work, I then got a cold beer from the fridge, set a sprinkler on the tomatoes, and lounged in the shade listening to the birds while the dogs variously napped in the sun, chewed on sticks, or rolled in the grass. I can usually drop my hand down and touch at least three of them.

I felt extra virtuous because I mowed the entire property after work yesterday so the yard looks great--dandelions that are chopped down to the same level as the grass are suprisingly not as annoying.

That has to be my favorite way to pass a spring (or summer) afternoon: surrounded by happy, calm pups, everyone enjoying the fresh air, green grass, nice smells on the breeze, and the warm sunshine.

Postscript: I neglected to mention that it is 84 deg as I write this. Before you northerners get all wound up about the balmy weather, it is forecasted to be near freezing on Sunday night--all my tender plants will have to be covered.