The Good Earth

Lazy Sundays rock and I'd been craving one like this for a while. We slept in and then headed to Corner Cafe where we noshed on excellent eats while reading the Sunday paper. Aw, yeah....

Back home, I joined Keith for some of the first gardening moments of the spring. I've long regretted that if I inherited the green thumb that has been sported throughout my family tree, the thumb was either painfully shy, pathetically lazy or if possible, adopted. I have yet to feel the joy that both of my parents and their parents experienced tending their gardens. Both of their families got through the Great Depression by growing their own food. As a source of familial pride alone, I should be diggin' in the dirt, dammit! But no...

However, the soulmate that was sent to me happens to sport a serious green thumb himself. Keith studied horticulture in college and creates stunning flower gardens and bountiful vegetable gardens. Today, I joined him as he prepared his first plantings. Keith practices square-foot gardening and soon was elbow-deep in manure...and mushroom compost, vermiculite(volcanic stuff!) and peat moss. We planted lettuce, spinach and peas. I felt the usual gripiness about bad backs, aching knees and the failure to enjoy gettin' my hands dirty creeping in but fought off the urge to complain. The square-foot gardening is a fascinating and frankly, easier process than traditional gardening methods.

Heaven knows I dig the results of gardening. Maybe the green thumb will rise and stake claim to the family roots after all. Happy Easter, all.