Catching Up

Hello. 

It's been a minute. Let's catch up. 

It's May 2016. Spring here in the South. I got into gardening. Not like super big. I started small, but I have plans to expand into something even more awesome. 

Did you know the best time to plant stuff is in the fall? I always thought it was spring because of all the Home Depot commercials but yeah...it's fall. Especially shrubs and trees. The fall and winter give them time to establish their roots instead of devoting their energy into producing leaves. 

The more you know, right?

So, Paul has never had a tomato garden. It's been adorable seeing him go "Ohh" in wonder when he sees them growing. 

"They look like little green nipples."

Sigh* Men love those boobies, don't they?

What else...oh! Because I got into gardening, I got super interested in butterflies and birds. And so I'm planting milkweed from seed for the butterflies and ended up posting a birdfeeder on all 4 sides of the house. The butterfly weeds haven't sprouted yet, but boy those birds know about us now. I think it helped that I got unshelled sunflower seeds. It's practically bird Doritos for them. 

But it's worth it b/c I like songbirds. Watching them gives me peace and a feeling of hope. I wonder about where they've been and what they've seen. Some of them have traveled from way up north and others way down south. 

I'm glad our neighborhood is full of their twitterings now. It was creepy without them. The area is being developed and they're cutting down all these trees and I was worried the birds wouldn't come back. 

Hmm...what else. I'm growing morning glories! That's what that picture is at the beginning. Got a packet of seeds from Walmart for like 50 cents. Trick is you have to take a nail clipper and clip a small part of their shell off. Then soak them in water overnight. THEN you plant them. Makes a huge difference. But I gotta say that it's weird I planted like 2 packets of the blue ones and I got purple each time. I read up on it and it has something to do with the environment? The soil? No clue. Whatever, purple flowers are pretty cool still.  

Also, herbs. Specifically catnip and mint. Did you know you pinch those things back to make em grow? I had a mint plant as a kid and I managed to kill it. It's really hard to kill mint. It's practically a weed. Very very invasive. DO NOT PLANT DIRECTLY ON THE GROUND!!! But yeah, those little things are going crazy, and Abby now treats me like I'm her drug dealer b/c she's always high from the catnip. 

I'm trying to enjoy spring as much as I can. The relentless summer heat is on its way here. Ugh. I hope my garden is prepared for the onslaught of sun and humidity. I'm always reminded that Georgia was basically a swamp when Hernando De Soto traipsed through it.

I hope you are all well and enjoying this weather. Plant something, watch it grow. There's something so elemental about it. Sorta finding a way to catch some of that childish wonder adulthood beats out of you.