Compost Happens

Thank God spring is finally threatening to appear. I'm so sick of snow and cold weather I could scream. I'm tired of space heaters, thick socks over thick socks, mysterious breezes in the office and if I see another fleece pullover I'm setting fire to it. Today was in the 50s, with that sort of cloudy sunny sky that happens in spring and the wind actually had some warmth to it.

Time to go outside.

My vegetable garden was basically a total disaster last year. My promising zucchini was completely obliterated by stink bugs. Those little bastards killed my beautiful plants literally overnight and then moved on to the cucumbers and murdered them as well. So after tempering my anger and the urge to napalm the whole area I filled a bucket with water, pulled the limp and bleeding plants from the bed and tried to kill the bugs without resorting to pesticides. I scooped the shield shaped villains and dumped them in the bucket and then stomped on what I could find. Sometimes my commitment to organic gardening can be a real pain in the ass. Time will tell if I they're gone or not.

The beans were listless and unhappy and the peppers were stunted. My tomatoes were victim to an early spring deluge followed by a beastly hot and dry summer so they responded by not producing a single fruit until fricking August. So while I berated and begged them I bought tomatoes from a delightful and flirty Italian man in the parking lot of the discount bread store. He was about 80, thought he was 30, and I was only too glad to exchange some sexual harassment for his lovely yellow and glowing red tomatoes. I'll pretty much do anything for a good caprese salad. Ask anyone.

About the only thing that thrived was the damn mint which took over the herb garden, the rose bed, crept through the fence and I'm sure was under the couch at some point. I probably used it twice over the summer.

So after my garden was victim to weather and homicide I promised myself that I would take this season off, let the ground rest and plant a few things in pots hoping for a little bit of summer produce.

And then I broke ground, spread compost and planted spinach and lettuce this afternoon. Jason helped me by pouring a handful of seed into the same spot and then stomping on the ground. I laid a piece of old metal fence over the top to keep the neighborhood feral cats from using my garden as a toilet and felt like I had accomplished something today. Surely I can eke out one little round of greens to celebrate making it through another Missouri winter.

I swear its the only thing going into the area this year. Although I do need somewhere to put the elephant ears and I really want to grow some cannas.

But that's it.

Probably.